ACES of SEED
by longherin
Summary: Four Wings of Strangereal gets plopped into the SEED verse and fly around and be awesome. Rating is general because I'm not quite sure where to go with it yet.
1. Stage 1 - The Wings of Strangereal

"Are these the so-called 'mercenaries'?"

Four men looked up at the sound of that voice, a man dressed in a white officer's uniform.

"Yes sir." His aide said, looking down at the documents in his hands. "They've only recently arrived on base. Central command says we are to outfit them for battle."

The officer scoffed. "Pah. Damned Eurasians, sending us pilots without wings." He then raised his voice, addressing the four pilots. "I don't know who you are, and I frankly don't care. My aide will show you your quarters and your assigned units. Dismissed." He turned and left.

The aide waited until the man was out of earshot, and then sighed.

"I apologize for our commander's brash words. The situation in space is quite trying as it is."

The oldest of them waved it off. "It's understandable."

The aide then motioned for the four to follow.

…

"These are your crafts; they've been inspected and are in good working order." The aide said, standing in front of four rather odd looking crafts.

Said crafts had a cockpit attached to two large "legs" of engines, along with a pair of hard point arms mounted near the front. They were painted a silvery grey.

"TS-MA2 Moebius." The aide said, missing a sideways glance shared between two of the men in the back. "These are our workhorses of space. Familiarize yourselves with the controls within the following weeks." Nods all around. "Very good, your quarters are…"

…

…

"Now then, now that we're all settled in… how about some introductions all around?" One of the pilots, the youngest looking one, said.

It was several hours later and the four pilots spent their time reading the manual to the Moebius crafts that they would be flying, noting how one of the pilots would seemingly twitch every time he saw the word "Moebius".

None of the pilots knew each other; they had, after all, only came up with the term "Mercenaries" as a cover story and let the eldest one do all the talking. Now they had to make that cover story stick.

"I'll go first, then." The youngest pilot said, after getting lukewarm response from the rest of them. "My call sign is Garuda one, TAC Name Talisman. I serve in the Emmerian Air force, 8th Wing, 28th Fighter Squadron."

The name –Emmerian— got a stir. "A pilot from Emmeria? Out here in god knows where? Looks like we have a little more in common than I thought." One of the other pilots said, smiling slightly, before extending a hand.

"TAC Name Blaze, call sign" He hesitated for a fraction of a second. "Wardog Leader." The younger pilot looked at him in shock. "Osean Air force, 108th Tactical Fighter Squadron."

"The Ghosts of Razgriz." Talisman whispered in awe.

Blaze looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I didn't know we were called that."

"My turn next?" The not-oldest one said, after everyone else turned and looked at him for a moment. "I don't have a TAC name. Callsign Mobius one, I'm attached to the ISAF 118th Tactical Fighter Squadron."

Blaze got up. Apparently his discomfort among strangers vanished, once he realized he was among people he knew, in some fashion. "We're not worthy." He said, comically worshipping the man while standing up.

"Looks like we're all Aces in Strangereal." The oldest man said, smirking. "6th Air Division, 66th Air Force, Galm Team Number One, Cipher."

Cue shocked looks from everyone at the table, although part of them expected something to that effect.

"Looks like we're all Aces, indeed." Mobius One mused.

…

Stories were swapped, and timelines were confirmed.

Cipher was fresh off his victory party after the destruction of the Excalibur, the super weapon deployed in the Belkan War. The Demon Lord of the Round Table, as he would have been called later, is famed for his brutal and total annihilation of all targets on the field. Cipher looked a bit cowed by that last bit, as he himself made sure to spare unnecessary targets from destruction when he could; it was a waste of ammo anyways.

Mobius One, given the New TAC name "Ribbon" (much to his bemused chagrin) was preparing for an attack on Stonehenge, a massive ring of anti-air cannons that would have marked his meteoric rise to fame and popularity as the most famous Ace on the planet. Ribbon became extremely uncomfortable once he was told by Blaze that he would be considered the equivalent fighting force of an entire squadron.

Blaze, comparatively less known than the two (as he sees it) gods before him, was nevertheless known as of the "Four Wings of Sand Island" or, alternatively, "Demons of Razgriz." Having just returned from his attack on the large scale submarine Hrimfaxi, Blaze was certainly aware of that second nickname.

"But why a ghost?" He asked.

Talisman clarified that, at some point, Wardog squadron was branded traitors of Osean and shot down, but a mysterious squad of four fighters later rose up out of nowhere and ended the second Belkan war, the Unsung war. It is believed by many pilots (Talisman among them) that the second squad was indeed Wardog, and that they simply were not shot down at all. Upon hearing this, Blaze simply shrugs.

Talisman, being the youngest of the group, had no one to fill him in on the roles he would play in the Anean Continental War. While he had more flight time than at least Blaze and Ribbon (having had around two years of experience prior to the Invasion of the Emmerian Capital of Gracemeria besides basic training) his pride was in tatters due to the loss of said Capital and the barely executed defense of the Air Force Base on Vitoze. The Angel of Emmeria had yet to earn his wings.

…

"Still, I can't believe we're all Strangereal Pilots." Blaze muttered, changing into his flight suit.

"We can worry about that later." Ribbon replied, doing the same.

"Yeah, it's odd enough already; ever flown in space before?" Blaze was starting to feel a bit nervous.

Ribbon shook his head.

A single thought rang through both their heads at that moment. _Shit._

…

"Razgriz squadron, you're cleared for takeoff, deploy immediately." Blaze heard over his communication set in the cockpit of his Moebius craft.

Razgriz was the name the four aces of Strangereal decided for themselves; in all honesty none of them (except maybe Talisman) expected to use said moniker except as a formality. They were, after all, Aces who earned their wings on individual flying.

"Razgriz Leader, roger." The few hours spent with the manual was paying off, as nobody managed to crash.

Immediately upon clearing the ship, the four aces started testing everything about their crafts.

"I have to admit this isn't how I thought space would be like." Cipher said, putting his craft into a spin for a moment before getting it back under control.

…

"What the hell are they doing?" The aide deadpanned, looking at the four Moebius crafts flailing through space, behaving for all their worth like decorated space junk.

…

"All Razgriz crafts report in." Blaze said, having been nominated as the leader of the squadron.

"Razgriz two." Cipher.

"Three." Ribbon.

"Four." Talisman.

There was a discussion on which pilot is better, Cipher or Ribbon, but no conclusion was reached due to a distinct lack of atmosphere to fly in and compete.

"We're coming in to the Endymion Crater, stay on your toes." Blaze said, looking at the flashes in the distance. "Two's with me, three and four stay together."

Nobody questioned it; they're not the aces of space yet.

Soon enough, the four saw the enemy in their sights: ZGMF-1017 GINN units.

All of them expressed some level of shock and indignation at having to fight against highly mobile humanoid weapons: going against a target that can turn a full 180 degrees in a matter of seconds was not something any one of them relished doing, especially for the three that were aware of the exploits of a certain Phoenix.

"Razgriz squadron, join the battle." Blaze heard over the comms.

"Roger that. Razgriz squadron, cleared to engage. Don't get cocky out there."

As every one of them expected, nobody used the Razgriz moniker at this point.

"Blaze, engaging."

"Cipher, engaging."

"Garuda One, engaging."

And then everyone felt a slight chill.

"Mobius One, engage."

…

"Ginn sighted, vector zero-two-zero. Talisman?"

"I'm on you. Let's do this."

"Copy." Mobius One, Ribbon, leveled his craft's nose at the enemy at turned off the auto-tracker, and fired two shots from the linear gun. The Ginn shook from the two shots hitting its back, and turned around in a hurry with its Heavy Machine Gun raised.

The Ginn pilot saw a blur of silvery grey race past his target screen and started to turn to catch the target, before being forced to stop after taking another hit on the wing.

"Talisman, target hit." Talisman said as he flew across the Ginn while taking a moment to inspect the damage. "Geez, these guns are horrid. No visible damage done."

"Flank him."

"Roger."

The Ginn pilot paused for a moment and sighted the Moebius to his left, and fired a short burst. The Moebius craft jinked out of the way in a large, exaggerated movement.

Talisman swore, before wrestling back control of his craft. "Damned lack of air."

"I have him." Mobius one said, firing three shots and hitting the Ginn's head with one of them, before darting by. Talisman regained control of his craft, and kept the enemy in his sights until the auto-tracker gave him a tone of lock.

The Ginn immediately went into evasion mode, flying as erratically as he could to dodge the supposedly incoming fire.

"Figured." Talisman grumbled and turned off his auto-tracking, and chased after the Ginn.

"Hey! You guys having fun? Give us a piece!" Blaze's jovial voice came over their unit speakers.

Nobody needed to say it: The lone Ginn was giving them trouble, and they knew it. Better to fly together and kill it than to spread out and do nothing.

"Copy that lead." Talisman chuckled, "watch your locks."

Cipher and Blaze promptly turned their gun auto-trackers off and headed after the now slowing down Ginn.

"Man, evasive flying isn't their forte, isn't it." Blaze shook his head. "Razgriz, let them have it!"

Four Linear guns roared in reply, blasting the Ginn's extremities into scrap.

"These things are built really well." Talisman said, surveying the damage. The Ginn's torso cockpit section was largely intact, but its arms, arm shoulder pads, legs (from the knee down), and head were all blasted off.

"Well, this means we just need to cut off its arms." Cipher said.

"Affirmative on that. Razgriz, let's go." Blaze said, as the four crafts headed into the battlefield.

Or, rather, the four crafts stayed on the outer edges of the battlefield, looking for a target of opportunity rather than diving into the fray.

As Talisman could see, the need to be extra cautious was rubbing the Demon Lord and Mobius One the wrong way.

"We got another one. Razgriz, engage." Blaze said suddenly, having picked up a Ginn that strayed just a little too far from the action. The four crafts turned and dove after it.

…

"What's with these guys?" The ship-bound operator exclaimed in a mix of confusion and exasperation; the Earth Alliance training handbooks said nothing about squad-based combat operations, and this was his first time seeing a Ginn actually get taken down by Moebius crafts at close range.

…

"Cipher, break off."

The Ginn fired his giant rifle, which Cipher dodged with an exaggerated action. The Ginn taking the shot showed his back to another craft while Cipher cursed the lack of air.

"Mobius One, firing." His craft lurched as his gun found its mark in the back of the Ginn.

This particular Ginn pilot was smart enough to realize that standing stock still on the battlefield was a hilariously stupid idea, and engaged his thrusters to lose the circle of Moebius crafts.

"He's running." Blaze fired two shots at the Ginn, who dodged it with its exceptional maneuverability.

The Ginn turned around while mobile, and received a shot to the chest for its troubles.

"Keep flying straight." Blaze said lightly, as the Ginn turned around to evade some more, but not before taking another shot to its back. "Makes our jobs easier."

"I have a lock." Mobius One said suddenly, "Mobius One, fox two!"

His Moebius craft fired one of its four missiles, and the Ginn responded by trying to evade even harder.

"Take the shot, gentlemen." Mobius one said, as the missile exploded, barely grazing the Ginn, who was trying to regain control after his wild evasion tactics.

The instant the Ginn stopping flying erratically it was struck by a barrage of linear gun fire.

Now missing its head, left arm, shoulders, and half of the left leg, the Ginn turned and accelerated away at top speed.

"Are we letting him go?" Cipher asked; it was money down the drain, after all. He then silently reminded himself that he wasn't a real mercenary at this place.

"Affirmative. We're…what the hell was that?" Blaze said, suddenly experiencing a strange tingling sensation in his stomach.

The other three felt it too, and the combination of familiarity and omen struck them hard, before Mobius One had an epiphany.

"This feels the same as Stonehenge." Mobius One inhaled. "We need to get out of here. Right now."

Cipher nodded, despite no-one being there to see it. "Feels like the Excalibur to me. We're out, let's move!"

The four crafts turned tail and ran.

Moments later, the crater was engulfed in a huge explosion.

…

…

*Months later*

…

…

"Razgriz squadron, you're cleared to land."

Razgriz One, Blaze, lead his flight into the cargo carrier.

"Nicely done, Razgriz. Welcome to Heliopolis."

…

"We're 'peacekeepers'." Talisman said again, for about the fifth time this hour.

"Yeah, might as well get used to it." Blaze muttered, reviewing in his mind for the fifth time how the faces of the Earth Alliance officers fell after they justified their retreat as "a feeling they had". He had zero doubt that they were sent to this particular station as a reward for that "feeling".

Cipher managed to do some fast talking with the officers to let them do some modifications to their crafts per their status as mercenaries. He had (along with Blaze) deduced correctly that the officers had something else in mind with the "peacekeeping" force they were sending to a neutral station, thus the Razgriz squadron were allowed to modify their crafts as they please, and to operate independent of the Earth Alliance chain of command unless otherwise specified.

Which meant all the crafts are now painted with their insignias, since silvery grey was already an unusual color for the Earth Alliance Moebius crafts.

"Oh? More Moebius pilots? Are you guys new?" The four heard a voice behind them. Blaze turned and saw a blonde man in an officer's uniform with a confident and friendly grin on his face.

_No reason to be hostile. _Blaze reasoned. "Yes sir, we're transferring here as an independent peacekeeper force."

He saw the man scowl for a fraction of a moment. "For a neutral colony? Man, high command is getting more arrogant by the day. What did you guys do?" The man laughed.

"We had a bad reason to get away from Endymion." Cipher said from up front; the entire wing had stopped for the chat.

"A bad reason? Wait, you guys were at Endymion too? Which wing were you attached to?" The officer said with genuine shock.

Mobius One, Ribbon, shrugged. "We came in at the tail end of the battle."

"Huh, how interesting. Ah!" He looked a bit sheepish. "I haven't even introduced myself. Mu La Flaga, pleased to make your acquaintances, gentlemen."

"Blaze."

"Cipher."

"Ribbon."

"Talisman."

"Are those your real names?" Mu laughed.

Blaze grinned in response. "They might as well be."

…

…

"Shit, seriously? The hell is ZAFT thinking?!" Blaze swore as he quickly strapped himself into his craft.

"Guess they didn't like how we looked. All units! Intercept the enemies as soon as you take off!" Mu La Flaga said, pulling out of the dock in his orange Moebius Zero.

"Razgriz, check in." Blaze said, pulling out of dock quickly, followed by his squadron.

"Two." "Three." "Four."

"All Razgriz units, cleared to engage all ZAFT forces. Stay together for this one." Blaze said, watching a Ginn cut a friendly Moebius craft in half with a sword on a fly-by. "These guys look skilled."

"Sounds interesting, this squad combat thing." Mu said lightly, using the Gun barrels that were a signature to the Moebius Zero to perforate a Ginn. Said Ginn promptly exploded and destroyed two of the barrels in response. "They're self-destructing. Must be a special ops force." He muttered.

"Razgriz lead, copy." Blaze had seen the unit explode, and turned on his auto-tracker. Soon enough it sounded the lock-on tone as it locked on to a Ginn. Said Ginn pulled a sharp turn and leveled its large recoilless rifle at his Moebius.

The Ginn was then promptly shot in the face by Talisman's Moebius fighter.

"They're pretty good." Blaze said after regaining control behind the now head hurt Ginn. "All units watch out for the enemy explosions. They're a bit suicidal."

The Ginn responded by pulling out its Heavy Machine Gun and spraying bullets ineffectually all over the place in front of him. Blaze put it out of its misery with a stream of Vulcan fire into the Ginn's back.

"These Naturals are oddly skilled." A pilot in a white mobile suit mused.

Mu La Flaga felt an odd flash. "Is that…?"

"That looks like a commander unit." Mobius One remarked upon seeing the white mobile suit.

As if in consensus all four units chased after it.

Two Ginns flew to the aid of the white command unit as it headed into the colony.

Mu La Flaga's Moebius Zero flew past them at top speed.

"Man's got a one track mind. Razgriz, spread out."

"Two." Cipher locked onto one of the Ginns and fired a missile.

The Ginn turned on its burners and rose higher, only to be intercepted with a shot from Cipher's Linear Gun. As it staggered in space he fired another missile at it, and it struck the Ginn in the torso, likely killing the pilot.

Mobius One flew behind the second Ginn that had its overlarge gun aimed at him, and pulled a very sharp 180 degree turn in the zero gravity, and as the Ginn turned around to intercept, Mobius One fired a missile at the Ginn without bothering to wait for a lock.

The Ginn kicked its engines to full and avoided a direct impact with the missile by dodging to his right.

Blaze intercepted said Ginn's evasion by firing a missile into the Ginn's path of evasion, hitting it square in the back and totaling the craft.

The entire exchange took about thirty seconds.

"Alright, we're done, Flaga might need our help." Blaze called, already moving onto the next battlefield in his mind.

Historians have often argued about the capabilities of the Aces of Strangereal. Opinions ranged from "they use drugs" to "they are all the same person". What most people fail to account for is one, quite simple, fact.

The Aces of Strangereal are all fast learners.

…

…

"I'm gonna be honest, the insides of a colony amaze me." Talisman said, taking a moment to look around at the ground all around him.

"Same here; now where did that command unit go…" Cipher muttered, before catching himself.

"All units, this is still space, don't get complacent." Blaze laughed, catching Cipher's odd action.

"I see it, Command unit at zero-five-zero." Talisman suddenly said. "Looks like it's fighting with some other units."

"Whoa, wait. They stocked combat weapons in a neutral colony?" Mobius One raised an eyebrow.

Guess they did have something up their sleeve." Blaze grunted. "Razgriz, we're taking that Command unit. Watch your fire." Three affirmatives came in reply.

"Shit, Jink!" Mobius One suddenly said, and the four broke formation.

…

"They're quite good." The pilot of the white command unit said, having just sprayed fire in the direction of the incoming Moebius unit. "I didn't know Earth still had pilots of that caliber; just where were you hiding them, Mu La Flaga?"

Mu smirked, firing a Gunbarrel gun at the Command unit. "They're a surprise gift, Rau Le Cruset!"

Rau raised his shield-mounted Gatling gun and fired at the Moebius Zero, largely ineffective as the small orange craft zipped out of the way. Before hearing the Earth Alliance communcations from the Moebius crafts. _Apparently the Moebius pilots don't know their encryption._ Rau thought.

"Flaga, you alright?" Blaze said.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm taking this bastard down right here, right now." Mu replied, turning around for another run.

"Give it your best shot, Flaga." Rau said mockingly.

"We'll assist. Razgriz."

"We're here. Let's do it." Mobius One responded, turning to put a little more distance between himself and the white command unit, before needing to evade a little harder to dodge some shots from said command unit.

"Blaze, I'm with you." Talisman said, putting himself a little behind Blaze.

Rau sighted one of the Moebius units and opened fire with his machine gun, forcing the Moebius to dodge to the side. He then fired his shield-mounted Gatling and raked the Moebius with fire.

"Shit, I'm hit! Right engines are down." Mobius One detached the single missile attached to the right hard point; it exploded behind him. "I'm still in the air."

"I got him." Blaze said, having maneuvered behind Rau's unit in the meantime. A single Linear Gun round flew at the Command Unit...

And Rau quickly dodged out of the way while twisting to bring his machine gun to bear on the Moebius behind him, only to need to dodge again due to a shot from Cipher, aimed at his side again.

Cipher, for his part, had to break off the attack to avoid flying face first into a burst of fire.

"These guys are good." Everyone muttered about everyone else.

Rau fired both of his guns wildly around him, forcing all the Moebius crafts to break off their attack runs. He then took the advantage and made a quick exit out of the colony.

"Not a commander for nothing." Blaze muttered, restraining himself from firing a parting shot after the Command Unit. "All units stand by."

"Roger. What's that thing down there?" Talisman said, looking down at the giant humanoid unit.

"That's our secret." Mu La Flaga said. "The Strike."

"Not much of a secret if you told us what it was." Cipher turned his Moebius a little, and frowned. He then frowned harder. "Look at those things. I guess they were carriers for those weapons."

The other Aces turned to look at the five empty Mobile Suit carrier trucks. "Guess there were more than one. What happened to the rest?" Mobius One wondered out loud. _Good thing there's no atmosphere; otherwise I'd be crashing and burning. _He thought to himself.

A beep caught his attention. An unregistered ship appeared on his radar behind him. He twisted to look and caught the sight of a large, oddly shaped space ship that looked as if it had legs.

"Looks friendly." Talisman said, before changing his communications to a general Earth Alliance channel. "This is the Independent Earth Alliance Fighter Squadron Razgriz; unidentified ship, state your affiliation."

A brief pause, before a woman's voice came over the line. "This is the Earth Alliance Battleship Archangel; I've never heard of a Fighter Squadron with that name."

"We're a bit new to the neighborhood." Blaze said. "Archangel, this is Razgriz leader, requesting permission to land." He watched as the Moebius Zero went to dock without getting clearance. _Must be emergency times._

"Uh, Roger, Rasgrease. You have permission to land."

…

…

"This boy was in that thing?" Mobius One was shocked.

The boy in question happened to be the one and only Kira Yamato. Surrounded by his friends and facing down a wall of guns.

"I was unaware the Earth Federation employed child soldiers." Cipher said with a slight edge in his voice.

"I wasn't piloting it because I wanted to." Kira said.

"He did it to protect all of us." A brown haired girl said, looking a bit hurt and lot angry.

"So it seems. So why are we pointing guns at him?" Mu La Flaga walked in with a sigh of exasperation.

"He's a Coordinator." A severe looking woman with black hair said, as if that explained everything.

"Someone clarify why that's dangerous?" Talisman asked.

"We're currently at war with the Coordinators." The same woman replied, looking annoyed.

"Yeah? And he saved all your asses. You should all be thanking him instead of pointing your guns at his face." Cipher growled. A few of the soldiers looked sheepish at this, and lowered their guns.

Mobius One scowled as well; racial prejudice was not something he was used to seeing, considering the nature of his previous employer. "Regardless, can we be briefed on the current situation?"

"What's there to brief? The Earth Alliance used a neutral colony to develop weapons and ZAFT found out." Mu laughed bitterly. "And now we're paying for it."

"In any case, we need to chase down the four stolen suits and report back to headquarters." The woman with long brown hair said. "Lieutenant Flaga, being the ranking officer, will you take command of the ship?"

He shook his head. "You know more about this ship than I do; besides," He glanced at the four Aces of Strangeal. "Their crafts aren't combat worthy right now, and we need all the guns we can get."

The four aces almost sighed in unison: After the attack by the enemy command unit all four Moebius crafts almost simultaneously blared warnings in the cockpit about engine troubles. Their best guess was that the Moebius crafts simply weren't built to handle the erratic flying the Aces employed in combat. Either way, the Moebius crafts in question are currently stored in the Archangel's hangers, smoking slightly.

…

…

"So how are we getting this ship out of the colony?"

The four Aces looked out of the bridge window; the severe looking black-haired woman (Natarle, her name was) shot them a few disapproving glances every few seconds but didn't say anything.

"If you have any good ideas, I'd love to hear it." The brown haired captain of the ship (Murrue Ramius) sighed; they had just confirmed the destruction of the military dock that would normally have allowed them to get out of the colony.

The bad news was topped off by the hesitation to blast the debris away for fear of damaging the colony further. Cipher scoffed at that justification, and when pressed said the colony's already damaged beyond repair. Nobody asked why he thought so.

"Considering ZAFT's attempts to get this ship and the mobile suits, we can assume that they will use whatever tools at their disposal to do so." Ribbon said, scratching his chin.

"So you think they'll blow the colony?" Blaze said, surprised.

Cipher pointed to the captain of the ship. "Their attempt number one almost succeeded."

Murrue frowned. Cipher had found out about the attack on the Archangel's original crew in around thirty seconds of talk with the captain and executive officer, and had zero issues with vocally expressing his distrust in the experience of the current ragtag crew.

"Besides, this colony is already screwed beyond repair." Cipher continued. "Wouldn't put it past anyone to claim that it was destroyed as an act of" he raised his hands to do air quotes "accidental fire."

"So we wait until they bust us out?" Talisman said, a slight edge to his voice.

"What choice do we have?" Cipher shrugged. "The only things we have are a Zero and a child."

Blaze sighed. Kira Yamato, the brown-haired, supposedly super-human coordinator, was adamantly refusing to pilot the mobile suit he was previously in. The X-105 Strike, then, was currently sitting without a pilot as Mu tried to talk him into going into battle.

"The four of you are ace pilots, are you not?" Natarle suddenly said. "Couldn't one of you pilot the Strike?"

"Would love to, but none of us have experience in a Mobile Suit." Ribbon responded.

"Even if they did, that OS the kid wrote is insane." Mu said, coming into the bridge. "Did you see that thing? Only someone like him could pilot it."

"Have him rewrite it then." Cipher said instantly.

Mu shook his head. "Kid won't do it, and the mechanics won't let him do it either."

Blaze raised an eyebrow.

"They said they'd let him do it after they're done copying it to a backup."

Faces met palms on the bridge.

"Now's not the time to be thinking about something like that." One of the weapons operators said as he got up and left.

"Murdoch, don't leave your" Natarle said as Murdoch raced out of the bridge. "station." She sighed.

"Can't be helped; he was a hangar crewman before we got hit." Murrue said, adding the last bit as an explanation.

Suddenly, warning sirens blazed in the bridge.

"Heat signatures detected!" All hands were alert. "ZAFT is…attempting to shoot through the colony!" A nameless operator said.

"What?!" Natarle and Murrue said.

"How can you tell?" Ribbon wondered.

"The Archangel has connections to a sensor array on the outside of the colony in case we needed to deploy. Damn ZAFT." Natarle explained, adding the little bit at the end in an undertone.

Murrue scowled. "All hands condition one, brace for impact; we'll break thorough in one go." The communications officer relayed her orders to the rest of the ship. "Weapons, arm Gottfried. Prepare to fire."

The ship shook.

Or, rather, the view outside the bridge shook.

The four Aces of Strangereal looked on in shock as the ground before their eyes trembled and broke apart, revealing the seams of steel that held them together.

"Missiles incoming!"

"Intercept!" Murrue said.

Through the bridge they could hear the dull whirr of the anti-aircraft guns, and the area in front of them lit up with explosions, shredding the pieces of the colony down further.

"Gottfried, fire!" Natarle said.

The ship rumbled as four green beams of light streaked through the ex-colony air (now very much so space) and caused more explosions to happen.

"Archangel, full speed ahead! All weapons fire at will!" Murrue said.

"Second shot incoming!" A second shot hit the colony debris and burned it up, and didn't reach the ship.

"Counter-fire!" Natarle commanded.

The Gottfried cannons swerved to the direction where the enemy fire came from and returned in kind.

"I don't know if we got a hit." The weapons operator commented.

"It's fine; we just need to get out of here." Murrue waved him off, as they watched the colony's debris float past them as the ship shook with debris impacts.

…

"That ship's escaping the colony debris." The captain of the opposing ship said, watching said ship on monitor.

"Well, let them run a little; pursuing through colony debris isn't good for our ship or our status." Rau Le Cruset said, his voice doing the shrugging for him.

"Yes sir." The captain said, "Have all pilots on standby."

"Yes sir." The executive officer said, before relaying the order.

"Have the captured units on standby as well." Rau added in, thinking of the unrecovered Mobile Suit.

…

"We've cleared the Heliopolis debris, where do we go next, captain?" The helmsman of the Archangel said.

The bridge felt oddly empty now that the four Aces weren't standing around, Murrue mused.

"Captain, the ship wasn't fully supplied when it was under attack; I advise that we head to Artemis." Natarle said, looking at a map on her screen.

"I agree. Set course for Artemis." Murrue commanded.

"Will they actually help us?" The communications officer mused, "They're the Eurasian branch, after all."

"We're still Federation, bad blood aside." Murrue mused.

…

"Oy! You guys came at just the right time! How did you burn them out that badly?!"

The four aces were in the hangar, being hailed as they watched their Moebius crafts go through what seemed to be a total overhaul.

"You guys actually have the parts for that?" Blaze wondered as he descended down to the hangar floor; not having gravity is great for jumping off of railings.

"We don't; these are reserve engines for the Mobile Suits that we're not gonna use any time soon." The Chief Engineer Murdoch said with a sigh.

Cipher whistled under his breath. "Pretty good work for a rush job." The Moebius craft's old engines were stripped off entirely and the new ones looked like they were forcibly bolted on to its two "legs", which they were.

Murdoch grinned. "If you got some requests for these babies I'd love to hear them."

The four Aces looked at each other for the briefest of moments. "Well…"

…

"The four pilots from before can fly again, right? So why do I have to keep piloting that thing?" Kira demanded.

Mu sighed. "We're up against a ZAFT ship with a full complement of Ginns; Moebius crafts have never done well against those things. Your Strike is the only—"

"It's not mine." Kira said.

"I know." Mu corrected himself. "The Strike is our only shot at getting out of here alive."

Kira fumed on the inside. He wasn't a soldier, why were they making him fight?

Mu read the look on his face. "I know what you're thinking, but if this ship goes down your friends would die too; it's not like they'll be left alone even if we could get them to an escape pod on time."

…

"Heat signatures confirmed!" The weapons officer said, staring at the readouts. "Enemy ship confirmed to be a Nascza class destroyer. Enemy will be within probable weapons range in twenty minutes."

"We can't outrun it, I see." Murrue sighed; the damage taken from the sabotage meant two of the Archangel's engines were offline. "Alert all pilots. If we can damage it enough we can get out of here just fine."

…

"Wait, that's her plan?!" Cipher was incredulous.

"Yep. Lady's got balls, that's for sure." Blaze laughed.

They had just been briefed that Murrue battle plan was essentially "ignore everyone and hit the enemy ship's engines".

"Shouldn't be too hard; ZAFT's got shit gunners." Ribbon mused.

All four of them were changing into pilot suits in a hurry, before hearing Natarle's voice on speakers.

"All crew, brace! We're taking fire!"

Immediately they felt the ship shake.

"Let's hurry." Blaze motioned to the others, and hurried by Kira as he came in to change.

…

"We took a hit; missile impact to port side, light damage." Natarle said. "Weapons, what are you doing!?"

"Roger!" The weapons officer gritted his teeth; the Igelstellung CIWS were not designed to target behind the ship, and the lighter Helldart missile launchers were still non operational. Poor man has his work cut out for him.

"Is the enemy ship launching units?" Murrue looked at the screen display of the enemy ship.

"Additional heat signatures detected, probable launch of combat units; estimated time of arrival, fifteen minutes." The Search and Detections officer said.

"Just great. Launch all we have. We need to stop the enemy ship!"

….

"Blaze! We got the launch order!" Murdoch said, as the Four Aces arrived to their respective Moebius crafts.

"Roger that. Razgriz, let's rock and roll." Blaze entered his Moebius craft, refitted with a pair of wings outfitted with missiles mounted on external pylons. A picture of a man in a black winged helmet was on his ship's body.

"About time." Cipher grinned like a feral beast. His Moebius was upgraded with a second linear gun, both mounted on the legs of the craft. Where the gun used to be was replaced by a large anti-ship missile. A picture of a bright red dog chewing on its chain emblazoned his craft.

"Roger that." Talisman's craft was emblazoned with a bird emblem, and mounted wings with external pylons with additional missiles, as well as an anti-ship missile.

"Copy." Mobius one showed no emotion, his craft carried both the wings and missile-armed pylons along with an additional Linear gun. His craft carried his symbol, the Mobius strip, on its body.

All of them were also armed with a grapple hook and wire.

…

"Razgriz squadron," Natarle said over the communications, still having some trouble with getting the pronunciation right, "you are to engage the enemy ship, ignore the rest of the enemy units."

Blaze laughed. "Not happening, girly."

Cipher cut her off before she could interject. "If we're up against Mobile suits we can't leave 'em alone. They want to sink our ship, and they hit harder than we do."

Natarle fumed for a moment; having orders blatantly ignored wasn't normal for her.

"Razgriz, you're cleared to launch." She said a moment later.

"Aye aye. Razgriz, let's do this!"

…

"Looks like they have Moebius crafts, though they look different from mass production models." The search and detections officer on the Nasca-class ship said, and the Moebius crafts were brought into view.

The captain looked at the insignias for a brief moment, and then promptly sighed in despair as he saw the status of those crafts in question. "Looks like they rigged a piece of garbage to float; this is what we're fighting against?"

"All mobile suits, you're cleared to launch." The Combat Information Officer said.

"Roger that, Cruset team, deploy!"

…

"Whoa, whoa, what?" Blaze looked at his display. "Is this a joke?"

"They're deploying the stolen G-Weapons? Damn them." Murrue said under her breath. "All pilots, capture the stolen G-weapons if you can."

"That's a joke, right?" Talisman said with a slightly shaky laugh.

"Shit…alright, Razgriz!"

"Two."

"Three."

"Four."

"We're taking down the Ginns; launch your Anti-Ships at the enemy carrier if you can. They can't fight if they're out of energy. Copy?" Three affirmatives came in reply.

"Enemy units are within range; Razgriz squadron, take them down." Natarle said as missiles exploded over the ship.

"Roger that. Wardog one, engaging."

"Galm one, engage."

"Garuda one, engaging."

He took a deep breath. "Mobius one, engage."

…

"Why do they have different callsigns?" Mu wondered.


	2. Stage 2 - The Wings Maim People

"Enemy units sighted, there's four Moebius crafts." Yzak, the pilot of the Duel gundam, said, then scoffed. "They're armed with pieces of trash."

Dearka laughed. "Well, then it'll be a cinch." His Blitz Gundam brought its large rifle to bear as he sighted one of the crafts, and noted, almost absentmindedly, the insignia of a dog biting on its chain.

Athrun saw insignias on the Moebius crafts, but didn't seem them clearly. "They have custom insignias. Are they aces?"

Yzak's shrug could be heard over the radio as the Duel raised its rifle. "Doesn't matter, they're flying trash. Kill them all!"

…

"Razgriz, let's run some interception!" Blaze said as he brought his craft into a spin.

"Whoa! What the hell!" Yzak saw the Moebius craft in front of him suddenly spin and took aim at the fighter.

He then blinked in surprise as his craft shuddered for some reason. The light beeping his console gave off reported that the Phase Shift Armor was only slightly disturbed.

"Enemy hit, I don't think it did anything." Blaze snarled as he sped past the Duel Gundam, outspeeding the enemy's Vulcan fire response.

"Coming." Cipher said, bringing his twin linear guns to bear on the Duel, which happened to be turned around, trying to catch Blaze.

"Yzak! Behind you!" Yzak heard over the radio and swerved to look behind him out of instinct, despite training telling him not to because you can't see that far back without using cameras. He then felt a much stronger shudder as Cipher's shots hit him square in the back.

"I got a hit, doesn't look like it did a thing."

"The stolen suits have Phase Shift armor; bullets aren't going to work against them." Natarle said.

There was a moment of silence as the four aces processed that information.

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?!" Talisman demanded, before dodging incoming fire from an enemy GINN. Natarle was too busy giving out orders to the ship gunners to reply.

"Razgriz Two and Three, intercept the stolen units; Four, we're taking down the GINNs." Blaze said.

"Two."

"Four, roger."

"Three, conserving missiles." Mobius One said while rolling heavily to dodge bullet fire from a GINN and fired back with the built-in Vulcans.

…

"My god, what are these guys." Athrun muttered after firing quite a few shots that he thought would hit only to have the fighters dodge them at the last moment. He then felt his craft shake again as he received yet another hit to the back from the yet another Moebius craft. _Every single time, always to my back! _He thought with a grimace, not bothering to turn around, since the one behind him would be long gone by then.

He watched the Moebius he fired at roll heavily to dodge a burst of fire from a GINN.

Said GINN paused in his fire and was immediately hit in the main camera on its face, seconds before Athrun brought up his rifle for another shot.

"I don't believe this! We're being outmaneuvered by goddamned Moebius crafts?!" Dearka said, after watching one of his missile salvos be thrown off by an impossibly sharp evasive maneuver.

"Nevermind them; all units, focus fire on the legged ship." Rau Le Cruset said over the communications, and heard three affirmatives in reply.

Yzak, ever the hothead, ignored the order and continued to pursue the two Moebius crafts, being dragged slightly further and further from the ship attacking force.

"Yzak, you're too far from us, return." Rau's order fell on deaf ears.

…

"Our magic's wearing off." Cipher said lightly, barely dodging a wildly aimed shot from the Duel. "But it looks like someone's got wool in their eyes."

"Then let's finish this one off quick." Mobius one said with a slightly predatory snarl in his voice.

…

...

"Wait, what are they doing?" Dearka said, having taken some pot shots at the Moebius crafts while attacking the Archangel, with limited success.

"I don't care. They're dead!" Yzak roared with fury. The two Moebius crafts around him have been pelting him almost incessantly with Vulcan fire, doing no damage, but shredding the hell out of his pride.

"Yzak, don't lose your cool." Athrun warned.

"Shut up!" Yzak's response was paired with some beam rifle fire aimed wildly at the Moebius crafts flitting around. He then raised his engines and tried to charge the Moebius units, namely, the one with the ribbon painted on it.

"Three here, commencing retrieval; requesting support." Mobius one said, and deployed his grapple towards the incoming Duel Gundam.

"Two." Cipher said, trying to maneuver to a position beneath the Duel.

Yzak heard an odd sound and ignored it. He raised his rifle at the oddly built Moebius craft, and blinked in surprise as the unit nosed above him and disappeared out of sight.

Yzak then heard his unit's autopilot blare a warning that it was trying to keep its position against some outside force attempting to drag it.

Then he heard a missile alert and promptly ignored it because Phase Shift Armor.

Mobius one catapulted himself to a spot behind the duel and had fired a missile at the Duel's engines; although the unit is protected against damage against physical impact, the armor doesn't protect against the force of the impact, and Yzak found himself thrown against the harness that bound him to his seat.

"Damn! Yzak's in trouble!" Athrun yelled, turning around and leaving the Archangel alone. "We're going to help him!"

Rau Le Cruset barely resisted shaking his head. "Go help your friend. GINN squadrons, continue the attack."

"Got it. Take this, you damned Naturals!" Dearka roared, firing his Gundam's large rifle in the Duel's general direction. He had pride and confidence in his marksmanship and was sure he wasn't going to hit the Duel.

Unfortunately for him, the two Moebius crafts he was shooting at knew it.

"Ignore him. He can't aim for us." Mobius one said, kicking half of engines into gear while keeping his grapple length constant, and depressed his gun triggers. His Moebius craft flew in a circle around the Duel, peppering it constantly with vulcan and Linear gun fire. The Duel, on the other hand, was held in position by the constantly thickening layer of grapple wire and could do nothing but take the damage.

Cipher shook his head, and turned his attention to the red unit that was charging forward with its beam saber out.

Athrun heard a voice over the communication line, and silently cursed himself: They haven't changed the communications channel encryption in the units, so the Naturals knew what they were saying!

Which was halfway true: Cipher had no idea what they were saying but was using a general line anyways, and indeed the ZAFT ship engineers hadn't changed the stolen unit encryptions yet.

"Kid, you're in way over your head." Athrun heard as he brought his sword in for a sideways slash.

Cipher's Moebius craft had long since rolled out of the way and had dropped the Anti-ship missile in his stead. Athrun narrowly avoided hitting the missile with the beam saber, but Cipher turned around hard and strafed the missile with his Vulcans before rocketing off, causing the missile to explode in Athrun's Gundam Face.

Athrun's suit instantly blared an alarm. He spared a moment to look at his readout and cursed yet again; the explosion damaged the saber mount on the arm, rendering the blade useless until it could be repaired.

Cipher, on the other hand, cursed as well; he hadn't anticipated the Phase Shift Armor to absorb so much damage from a missile designed to kill capital ships. However, before he could follow up his attack, his threat alarm blared and he twisted hard out of the way of a solid something that occupied his space before. He looked back and saw a heat signature appear behind him, before catching the glowing eyes of a mobile suit.

"Athrun! Are you alright?" Nicole, pilot of the jet black Blitz, said, before he instinctively raised his shield-mounted arm in response to a pepper of Vulcan fire. Said Vulcan fire hit the Blitz square on the head, though it didn't do any damage.

"I'm fine, Nicol. Thanks for the help." Athrun said a little shakily. _These pilots are naturals?! How can they move like that?! _His mind was reeling.

…

"Looks like the two heroes are doing just fine." Garuda one remarked, dodging another shot from a very angry GINN.

"What'd you expect? They're the Ace of Aces." Blaze laughed, suddenly jinking sideways away from a downwards sword slash from a GINN that's getting too close, and responded by shooting out its main head camera with his Vulcans.

"I wish these guys were a bit better." Talisman sighed as he put his craft into a sudden reverse, dodging a swipe from the same GINN that's getting a bit desperate. Said GINN received a missile to the face for his troubles.

"Shit, we can't possibly be losing to goddamned Naturals!" The captain of the GINN squadron snarled.

Blaze opened a general communications channel, laughing all the while. "Man, you're in for some horrible, horrible luck." And then he came across a good idea.

The GINN squadron couldn't help but stop for a brief moment to watch the Moebius craft flying high above the battlefield twist downwards to face their captain, while their captain raised his gun to meet the tiny, tiny fighter. "Luck? You think luck's enough to save you, you Natural bastard?!"

Blaze's chuckle suddenly drew a shiver from everyone listening in (which was, in effect, all the GINN pilots).

"We are the Razgriz, the demons of the north."

The captain of the GINN squadron fired his recoilless rifle, but it was no use: Blaze dove straight down while firing all of his guns.

…

The captain of the ZAFT vessel was furious. Four Moebius crafts—_four!_—were making a mockery of the ZAFT army.

"Olor's unit has gone silent!" He heard one of the crewmen report, and his rage built even more.

…

Rau Le Cruset looked on with a mixture of amusement and frustration, as he dodged another round of fire from the enemy capital ship.

Even through all that, he couldn't help but wonder: where was La Flaga?

…

Mu La Flaga couldn't help but whistle at the otherworldly skill exhibited by these pilots as he crept up slowly upon the enemy ship.

As his computer beeped on his arrival for the target location, Mu La Flaga, the Hawk of Endymion, took a deep breath, and charged towards the ZAFT ship.

…

The Archangel crew was busy trying to not die to Cruset and his GINN compatriots and their renewed attacks on the ship. To the ship's credit the armor is holding quite well.

"The Moebius Zero has begun it's attack, Captain." Natarle said, watching a light on her screen go green.

"Good, just hold out a little longer!"

…

Kira Yamato felt the ship shake yet again, and made up his mind.

…

"Incoming fire!" One of the ZAFT crew suddenly shouted, and the ship shook.

"Damage to the main engines! We can't maintain acceleration!" Another officer shouted.

The captain of the ship gritted his teeth. "Where the hell did that come from!?"

He then saw the orange paintjob of the Moebius Zero fly in front of the ship.

"The Hawk of Endymion." The captain gritted his teeth harder. Somewhere back on PLANT a dentist felt the tug of potential money in his wallet.

"Here's a farewell present." Mu laughed, set two of his Gunbarrels to fire while holding position, oriented them towards the ship's main cannons, and detached them, before turning and flying back to the Archangel.

As the ZAFT ship's main cannon barrels exploded from the Gunbarrel fire, the ship captain couldn't help but utter a string of expletives, though most of them were just repetitions of the same word.

…

Yzak was in all kinds of hell.

He heard his name being yelled over the communicators, but he was too focused on trying to keep his bearing straight to heed.

A little while ago he heard a second *clang* very similar to the first, and rightfully assumed that the second Moebius craft had attached a grapple onto him as well. He then tried to accelerate his way out of this mess, but every time he did the Moebius crafts would drag him in a direction totally perpendicular to the one he was going. The end effect was his Duel Gundam spent a lot of its power rotating uselessly in space, firing its Vulcans everywhere while its arm with the beam rifle was pinned uselessly to its side, still firing.

What he hasn't realized in his mind clouded with confusion and high octane rage was that his random firing was both drastically draining his unit of its energy and preventing his allies from assisting him. He was also too enraged to hear unit's many warnings, but at this point there are so many warnings if he had heard any of them it wasn't going to be of much help.

"God dammit Yzak!" Dearka shouted. "Get a grip!"

Of course, Yzak didn't hear him.

"This is sad." Mobius One said, watching the Duel gundam flail about, firing wildly.

"So sad." Cipher agreed, being forced to use his thrusters once or twice when a shot came slightly too close.

Both pilots continued to fly circles around the Duel and pump it full of Vulcan fire as it fired back and stopped its allies from helping it.

…

Suddenly, the battlefield was bathed in white light as the ZAFT ship fired three white lights, signaling retreat.

"What? What's going on?!" Le Cruset demanded.

"Our ship's taken damage to the engines, if we don't stop the pursuit we could get outside of our operational range." The captain explained, after finally calming down.

Cruset chuckled darkly. "Affirmative." He then opened a communications link to all ZAFT units on the field. "All units, we're retreating. Recover the Duel by any means necessary!" _What a disaster. _He couldn't help but think to himself.

...

"Shit, looks like they're coming after us." Cipher muttered. "Three, got any tricks up your sleeve?"

"I'm all out, Two." Mobius One sighed.

Cipher sighed as well; this was prime money sitting in front of him, and he has to abandon it. He then reminded himself that he wasn't technically a mercenary any more.

"Archangel, got anything to send us? I don't want to give up our prize."

Murrue looked confused for a second. "What prize? Wait, the Strike has deployed with the Launcher pack, maybe he can help."

Mobius One and Cipher were a little worried now: their Moebius crafts were running out of power.

"Razgriz, we're towing back a gift. Kira, can you read me?" Blaze said, deploying his grapple along with Talisman onto the Duel.

"I, uh, read you." Kira said, a little surprised. "Sir." He added at the end. After all, he was a young man who has read military fiction.

"Give us some cover while we tow this thing home." Blaze said, as all four Razgriz crafts deployed their grapples for the towing work.

…

Dearka gritted his teeth as he sighted the Moebius crafts yet again, ignoring the state of his unit's energy: this was his best friend, about to be dragged off into the Natural ship like a piece of trash!

The sudden alert of incoming fire broke his concentration as he dodged out of the way of some incoming fire, courtesy of the Strike's AGNI cannon.

"What the hell...the last unit sorties now?!" He said in dumbfound shock.

"We'll assist; fire missiles behind us!" Natarle said suddenly.

The weapons control officer nodded with a grin, and fired as many missiles as he could behind them between the Razgriz and the remainder of the ZAFT units.

…

Yzak, meanwhile, had raged so hard he fell into a state of almost catatonic shock when he felt the two other grapples hit his unit; having ran out of energy earlier and fired the last of his Vulcan ammo, he couldn't do anything but feel his unit be dragged and watched as the Vesalius flew further and further away.

…

"We can't get any closer than this!" Nicol said, trying and failing to get a good firing position on the Moebius crafts; the crafts in question were dodging and maneuvering almost in tantem with each other, dragging the Duel Gundam along as if it was a giant ragdoll, while the ZAFT Gundam pilots maneuvered wildly to dodge the endless barrage of missiles from both the Archangel and the Strike.

…

"C'mon, leave...!" Kira muttered, sighting a GINN and pulling the trigger for his AGNI cannon.

...

Rau Le Cruset gritted his teeth as he watched a GINN evaporate from the attacks of the Strike Gundam. "Damn. We're out of time; all units, retreat!"

Dearka swore loudly (enough for everyone to hear him) and aimed at the Archangel, and fired the last of his missiles. He then looked on in shock as the missiles were shot down by Vulcan fire from the four Moebius crafts. "Damn it!"

…

"Those guys are insanely good." Mu said, having made his way back to the Archangel only a few minutes earlier.

…

…

Docking was a simple procedure; the fighters just had to match speed with the Archangel, gently nudge themselves into position, and slow down a little bit until they met the gravity locks. The Duel was dragged into position and forcibly slowed down until it was caught with netting.

A silver-haired boy was then escorted out of the unit at gunpoint and thrown into a makeshift prison aboard the ship, which was just a room with the door locked (the brig was reserved as a storage depot for the moment).

…

"Wow, I still can't believe they managed to recapture one of the stolen Gs." Murrue breathed, after the radar cleared them of all threats.

Natarle could only shake her head as she smiled.

…

"Between the four of you, the stolen Duel was retaken, and five GINNs were taken out of commission." Mu said, astonished. "Nevermind the GINNs, retaking that Duel was insane! Did you guys have the grapples installed just for that?"

Mobius One, Ribbon, was inspecting his craft. "The pilot was too easily enraged, and no, it was a spur of a moment thing."

Mu chuckled. "Spur of the moment. Like shooting down those missiles?"

Ribbon shrugged. "Give your thanks to the mechanics for that one; the gun's auto-tracking is excellent."

"Oh really? I don't think auto-tracking was all it was; well, if you don't mind, Mr. Ribbon, care to teach me a few things?"

Ribbon paused. "I don't think I could teach the Hawk of Endymion anything useful about zero-g combat; we got lucky, that was all."

Mu clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't be like that, a few rounds will do."

"Well…if you insist."

…

"Yo, Yamato." Cipher said, getting the young man's attention.

"Yes, uh, sir?" Kira snapped out of the daze he was in.

"Thanks for the covering fire back there; the blue one wouldn't have been recovered without your help." Cipher laughed.

Kira made a noncommittal gesture. "You were done fighting at that point; it wasn't like I contributed a lot anyways."

Cipher shook his head. "See, that's where you're wrong. We cover for each other, and we share our kills, so to speak." He saw Kira flinch at the word 'kill'. "Thus, we're all equally responsible for the survival of each other."

Kira sighed. "I don't want to fight, especially not when I'm forced to…do this."

Cipher sensed a last minute word swap, but figured it would be better to let the issue drop. "Nobody wants to fight, kid; after all, the people in those Ginns we fought had friends, families, and loved ones at home probably hoping they're alright." The fact that some of those people were definitely not alright was left unsaid but could be heard as loud as a thunderclap.

Kira stared at him. "If you know that, then why do you fight them?" He thought again to the unit he had sighted and killed.

Cipher shrugged. "Simple, really; because they chose to step onto the field of battle; they chose be here, fighting for their beliefs, their reasons; who am I to deny their courage?" He added, almost absentmindedly. "Just like the Round Table."

"But still—"

"I know. You're in an extenuating circumstance that you don't want to be in. But look around you for a moment." Cipher made a sweeping motion with his left hand. "Everyone on this ship has people worried about them too."

Kira said nothing.

"Well, it's not like you have to kill your enemies." Cipher added, "From what I've heard you're pretty talented, and you have a top of the line machine on your hands."

"What's your point?" Kira felt a slight irritation.

"My point is: You're good enough to force the enemy to withdraw; better than what we can do, which is to barely damage the enemy enough so that they withdraw. If you can fight to protect others, do it. If you can fight to protect everyone, even the people you're fighting against, then by god why are you not fighting?"

"I'll…uh, keep that in mind." Kira said, getting a bit confused.

"In the end, man, it's your decision." Cipher said, clapped the young man on the shoulder, and left to do who knows what.

…

…

"Hey, what's up?" Blaze asked a rather tired looking Ribbon as the latter walked into the officer lounger, obviously exhausted.

"Mu La Flaga is good. Damn good." Was the tired reply.

"Oh really. The Hawk of Endymion is good at his job?" Blaze said with a smirk, looking back into his drink. "Would've never guessed."

"No, seriously. All the man needs is some competent wingmen to let him fly without worries, and he's going to do miracles." Ribbon sat down, taking the drink Blaze casually tossed at him. Or pushed, since this is zero G.

"What, are we gonna fly support for him next?"

"Not likely; it'll be good if we can get some pilots at Artemis, though." Ribbon said between gulps of his drink.

Blaze's eyes clouded over for a moment. "Speaking of Artemis…"

…

Mu La Flaga came out of the simulator, aching all over, as a bemused Murdoch passes him a towel.

"What is that man made of?" Mu demanded.

"Was he really that good, Lieutenant?" Murdoch, a (secret) fan of the "Hawk of Endymion", asked, barely covering a grin: Despite his loyalties, he did just win a good penny in a bet.

"Good? Good?!" Mu was indignant. "He flew circles around me in every match! I've never seen half the things he could do with a Moebius and the man's only spent a few months in zero-g?!" He calmed down for a moment, though he was more incredulous than angry. "If all four of them are as skilled as Ribbon we have the war in the bag. Why did the idiots at high command shove them off to Heliopolis anyways?! They should be instructors for the new kids!"

Murdoch stroked his stubbly chin. "Well, going by how the four treat each other, I think the oldest guy, what's his name, Cipher, is the most skillful one. Fancy taking him on?"

Mu leaned against the simulator, burying his head in the towel, to hide the massive grin on his face. "I don't think I can take another hit to my pride like that."

"Those can't be their real names, though." Murdock mused.

"Good. Let me believe they're some god of the fighters from the future." Mu grumbled.

…

"What was with the young man they pulled out of the Duel?" Talisman asked, having wandered onto the bridge at some point.

"What do you mean?" Murrue asked.

"He seemed…different?" Talisman cast around for some good descriptions. "It was like…" He didn't succeed.

"Well, for starters." He tried again. "What's with the pride he had?"

Natarle came onto the bridge at that moment. "Captain, I suggest you get some rest…oh, it's you."

Talisman was uncomfortable around the lady that Cipher had such interesting descriptions for. "Yes, it's me." He felt the bridge's temperature drop heavily.

Murrue chuckled. "It's alright, Natarle; the young man was probably prideful because of his red uniform."

_Click. _"Ah, so he was an elite pilot then?" Talisman felt his respect for the young man rise, and respect for ZAFT as a whole plummet.

Murrue nods. "You got it."

"So is the age of service sixteen for ZAFT? How long do they train their kids for, anyways?"

Murrue frowned slightly. "Well…"

"They are coordinators; they require less time to learn a new skill to a competent level than us normal humans." Natarle interjected, getting progressively angrier at Talisman's blatant disregard for the chain of command, but not saying anything since Murrue wouldn't care one way or the other.

"Talent, or whatever the hell it is they have, is no reason to use children as pilots." The glance Talisman, Gracemeria's Angel of Death, shot at Natarle could have frozen oceans. But since the lights were dim and she wasn't looking at him she missed it, though she still felt a serious chill up her spine.

"Well, we have unusual circumstances. If only Mr. Yamato would rewrite the OS for common usage, then he wouldn't be in a position to fight." Natarle shrugged, a slight wobble in her voice betraying the slight break of composure.

Talisman thought for a moment, then…

"Is the difference between a Coordinator and a Natural that large? Enough that a sixteen year old can make something not even a team of adults can understand?"

"It isn't that simple." One of Kira's friends said, the young man with the glasses. "Apologies for eavesdropping, but…"

"To put it simply," Natarle said, as if the interruption didn't happen. "Our engineers are running overtime trying to bring the Archangel and your crafts up into full combat mode again—"

At this point everyone on the bridge (and out of it) remembered how the four Moebius crafts' bolted on engines caused warnings to blare in the hangar, to the point where said hangar needed to be locked down for a few minutes and the crew evacuated while the engines stopped trying to melt everything down around it. The problem was eventually pinpointed to a faulty release mechanism for the heat radiators, but it was a few dangerous moments for the hangar crew. On the plus side, the entire ship's temperature went up from "uncomfortably cold" to "acceptably cold".

"—and thus they don't have the spare time to decode the Strike. And stop burning out your engines." Natarle added almost sulkily.

"We'll try, but no promises."

…

…

Yzak lied back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He had exhausted all of his rage a few hours ago, and has now settled for playing back the battle in his head, examining it from every detail possible. Every time he reviewed himself losing his composure he would seethe inwardly. Him! A ZAFT Red! Would make such an amateur mistake!

…

"He's been beating up the wall for a while now, is he alright?" One of the guards said after Yzak struck the wall in frustration for the umpteenth time.

The other guard on watch shrugged and downed a shot from a glass floating near them against the wall, silently thanking the fact that the Archangel had no booze.

…

…

…

"Sir, we should continue to give chase to the Archangel." Dearka said to Rau Le Cruset in Rau's quarters aboard the ZAFT cruiser. The hiss in his voice was palpable. Rau put on a new mask and turned to face Dearka.

"Dearka. I know you're worried about your friend, but we're currently in no condition to give chase." Rau said for what he felt was the fifth time. The almost constant loss of their "aces" –Rusty during the infiltration operation, Yzak when his Duel was caught, and Olog, one of the ship's senior pilots —and the presence of those "demonic" Moebius crafts (made of, as far as he could tell, junk) had driven ship morale to a near total depression. The ship captain had advised Rau to continue the chase - scrapped engines be damned - to raise morale , until he was reminded of the scrapped guns as well.

Rau had left the captain sobbing into his drink in the cafeteria; the man was very attached to his ship, after all.

However, Rau Le Cruset wasn't about to give up entirely; prior to the attack they had confirmed that the Archangel was on course to Artemis (rather, it was the only viable location the ship can run to, factoring in the ship's expected supply and manpower) and should the ship continue to give chase with its current capable acceleration, the Archangel would reach the station long before they did.

And if they gave chase at constant maximum acceleration, then the Artemis's gunner crew would have a enjoyable day watching the Vesalius plow into the station's Umbrella of Light.

For those reasons, Rau Le Cruset ordered the ship to retreat to PLANT, and for an emergency message to be sent for the deployment of a new pursuit force, along with mobile suits equipped with cameras.

He wasn't about to let the damned Naturals out-fly ZAFT's boys, after all, even if they had to resort to theft.

…

Dearka was hardly at ease, even after listening to that explanation. They were humiliated! As the ranking officer who would bear the blame Rau Le Cruset should know that, above all else!

"Dearka." Rau sighed. The boy was taking after Yzak; he could only hope the ship's best sniper calms down after a few days. "I am fully aware of what sort of responsibilities I shoulder. That is why, even though it is shameful, even though it places one of our own men in danger, we must withdraw. Yzak would not want us to lose an entire ship to retrieve him; the blow to his pride would be far from inconsequential."

Dearka shut up, and nodded after a moment. He then saluted, turned around, and left. Rau could only hope he wasn't about to do something insane.

…

Dearka felt the need to do something insane, like fly after the Archangel by himself. Until he talked himself out of it like a sane person.

A small part of him bemusedly noted how his constant friendship to Yzak and anticipating the boy's penchant for anger was the cause of Yzak being abandoned (if only for the moment) to the Naturals.

...

"I have to admit I don't like Yzak all that much." Athrun said, scowling. "But leaving him to the Naturals is practically a death sentence."

"It can't be helped for the moment." Nicole sighed, his eyes a bit redder than normal. "We need to think about the overall structure of this war, too."

Athrun chuckled sadly. "Structure, right; how many men do you think Yzak's mother would mobilize to get him back?" Yzak's mother, Ezalia Jule, was a member of the PLANT council—Athrun didn't know what her position was—and was quite worried about him, a fact that Yzak faced a small amount of teasing for back in school.

Dearka walked in with a drink, visibly calmer than he was when he stormed out a few moments ago. "Knowing her? Three ships, at least."

…

"Not only did the Naturals develop new weapons, they also had the audacity to create these…monsters?" A man in his office hissed while reading a report sent to him from Rau Le Cruset, concerning their stolen weapons and a recommended plan of action.

After he finished reading the report, he paused for a few moments to plan out his next actions, and then made some calls.

"I want you to take a look at this." He said, and waited for a few minutes while the man on the line read the snippet he sent under his breath.

"Holy shit, Patrick."

Patrick Zala laughed, in the bitter and cold way that he seemed to do nowadays. "Think you can spin this? I don't think Naturals can achieve these things by just raw skill, do you?"

A pause, then…

"Yeah, I don't think so either. A story about how the Naturals are sending young trainees through hellishly tough training should be good for our war efforts."

"Throw some shit about them forcing drugs on their pilots too."

"You got it boss."

Patrick hung up, and then dialed another number, and then checked his tone, just in case.

"Ezalia, we might have an issue on our hands." Ezalia Jule was against the idea of sending a ship to Heliopolis, even for supposed "peaceful" purposes, so she was, despite being one of his supporters, currently a little bit unhappy with him.

On the other hand, she hated using neutral places as a means of war.

"What is it, Pat? I'm a little busy here."

"One of our scout ships have discovered the" Patrick Zala checked himself at the last second "Earth Federation Army has used Heliopolis as a weapon development center."

He could almost feel the fury on the other side of the line. Who it was targeted towards, he prayed that it was not him. _Might as well do some fence mending now. _He thought.

"Cruset found them out," He added, before the lady on the line could properly vent her fury, "and he decided to engage. During the battle, apparently Yzak was captured after he had obtained one of the developed units."

Ok, NOW the fury could be clearly felt over the line, even though Ezalia was totally silent. _I might have screwed myself over. _Patrick thought bemusedly.

"I know, I know; regardless of what happened before we obviously can't leave a man behind, no matter where he is, and we can't exactly let—"

"How many ships can I send, Patrick." Upon hearing her deathly calm voice, Patrick Zala reminded of the instances where he did something his wife strongly disapproved of. And it terrified him.

"If we can spin this right, we can probably send three, but—"

"Send me everything you have, Patrick."

He did as he was told, and waited for a minute or so.

"I'll get us five ships." She said, and hung up.

Patrick let out a breath.

...

And a smile played on his face.

…

…

[Time: Some days later]

…

…

"Dearka, are you going to transfer?" Athrun asked, packing up his things.

"Damn straight I am. I'm not going to leave Yzak on that Natural ship any longer." Dearka's reply was punctured by him nearly beating his belongings into his box.

"That makes all of us then." Nicole smiled. For a brief moment earlier during the day Athrun had tried to talk the fragile-looking boy into taking a position away from the front lines, but Nicole had adamantly insisted that they were Yzak's friends. And friends don't abandon each other.

They had received word earlier that the council of PLANT had decided (far from unanimously) to send five ships and full complements of GINNs to chase after the "legged ship". (Ezalia got her approval when she revealed that the ships used for the operation would be stragglers that were slow to retrofit and couldn't make a rendezvous with their 17th fleet in time)

In technicality, they were a fleet to do "surveillance and patrol" around the Artemis station region.

In reality, each one of the ships was equipped with a new piece of equipped the technicians dubbed the "cold gun", developed for the sole purpose of taking down the Artemis station.

And all of them knew it was because Yzak's mother pulled strings, and everyone knew that Yzak's mother was fiercely protective and very resourceful when it mattered the most.

And now that legged ship will be facing down five ZAFT cruisers, and all the GINNs attached (some armed with cameras and told to focus on some Moebius crafts if they show up, to those pilots' eternal confusion).

…

Unfortunately for ZAFT said legged ship was already within hailing distance of the Artemis space station.

"This is the Earth Federation Assault Battleship Archangel, Artemis station, do you copy?" The communcations officer said (who happens to be Natarle today).

"This is Artemis station, I'm afraid we do not recognize your IFF, please stand by."

"Archangel, copy." Natarle said. Murrue, having heard the whole thing as it wasn't on a private line, ordered the ship to come to a standstill; as it had been decelerating the whole time it wasn't overly difficult.

"Nice to know they're still taking their protocols seriously." Natarle said with a note of approval in her voice; apparently the rumors of Artemis becoming lax were unfounded.

"Indeed, although I wish it wasn't held by Eurasia." Murrue said after stretching; the rivalry between Eurasia and the Atlantic branches got quite ugly sometimes.

The bridge crew watched as the Moebius crafts from the base came up around the ship, and moments later heard the ship's electronic warfare sensors beep as the scanners from the fighters went to work.

…

"Archangel, you're cleared to dock." They heard a good fifteen minutes later.

"They're being a little too cautious, don't you think?" Mu La Flaga wondered aloud, having arrived on the bridge some minutes back to see what the delay was. "It's not like they don't have physical cameras."

Natarle scowled a little. "Lieutenant, a little extra caution has never hurt anyone."

Mu held up his hands in mock surrender. "I know, I know."

"Docking complete. Archangel, welcome to Artemis."

.

.

.

Author Notes:

Woo, I did things!

So, for those of you who are familiar with what's going on—

Flay isn't on board yet because I forgot she showed up ER I MEAN

Kira didn't sortie for the "leave-the-colony" battle, thus he didn't get to pick her up. She'll show up later tho'.

The Archangel has more technology because c'mon, state of the art space ship. (Granted the expectations for what state of the art means in 2014 is a lot different than 2000).

I figured there would be more behind the shadows play with politicians, so... yeah. That's a thing.


	3. Stage 3 - Umbrella of Artemis

"So what was that about Artemis you were worried about, Blaze?" Cipher asked while leaving the Archangel; they had gotten some time off while the ship was being resupplied and repaired, about a week's worth.

"This station gives me the same feeling as back then." Blaze said, careful to drop his tone in case they were being overheard; _got in trouble for it once, might as well not do it again_, he figured.

Cipher didn't need to ask what he meant. "It's probably just because of their defensive system." Artemis was famous for its impregnable status, owing to its Umbrella of Light defensive shield system.

Blaze mulled it over for a moment. "Yeah, that's probably it."

…

…

"Ah, you must be the ship's captain." Gerard Garcia, the station's commander in chief, greeted Murrue Ramius once she was off the ship.

"Acting captain, sir." Murrue said, taking his offered handshake. "Our maiden voyage was far from smooth."

He chuckled, and then sighed. "Had the Atlantic Federation made us aware of the situation we would have been able to offer some measure of support to the secret project. Please accept my condolences for the losses of your comrades." Garcia bowed slightly.

"Ah, uh, thank you for those thoughts, and for accepting the Archangel's request to resupply."

Garcia laughed. "But of course! Even though we're a tad jealous of the folks in the Atlantic, we're still humans, after all."

_I guess that means Coordinators are out of the question. _Mu La Flaga mused to himself, before he received Garcia's attention.

"And here we have the famed Hawk of Endymion! It's an honor, Lieutenant La Flaga." Garcia gave an overly exaggerated salute, somewhat unbefitting of his status. "Just between us, I'm a huge fan of yours."

Mu scratched the back of his head. "You're giving me too much credit, sir."

Garcia laughed again. "Please, Gerard is fine; you're an inspiration to everyone here, no need to be so stiff."

Natarle scowled slightly: the man's lack of attention to protocol was getting on her nerves. But he was a commanding officer that outranked her severely, so she held her tongue.

Garcia paid her almost no attention on the path to his office.

…

"Alright, so the Archangel needs to get to Alaska, the sooner the better." Garcia summed up the results of Murrue's debriefing. She nodded affirmative.

"After she's done resupplying, we can have the Archangel fold into the 8th fleet until drop position to Alaska. Would that work?" Garcia said, looking at a holographic globe with several lines draw across it.

"Yes, sir. It would also be extremely advantageous if we were to receive additional crew, as well." Natarle finally said.

Garcia didn't bother to look at her. "Well, all of our non-reserve ships were sent to bolster the 8th fleet's numbers, and our reserve ships were scouring the Heliopolis wreckage for survivors; the first ships are back, by the way. But regardless we're not in a position to spare any crew for the ship. We do have pilots, however."

"More pilots would be extremely helpful; the current ones we have are not very good at keeping their crafts together." Natarle said, adding the last bit as almost an undertone.

"Oh really? What's wrong with them?" Garcia said, finally looking at her.

"Well…"

…

"Man, the Artemis's almost a home away from home." Talisman said while looking around the oddly very not-military looking bunch of shops and stores lined up in front of him.

"It's good, isn't it? At least we'll be able to rest for a while." Miriallia said; the girl with the curly brown hair had invited him along with Kira and the rest of their friends for their down time on the station.

Actually, her original goal was to get all of the Strangereal Aces, but Blaze and Cipher left early and Ribbon was talking to the mechanics, so Talisman was the only one who was free to go.

Also fittingly Talisman was the youngest of the group, so he fit in a little better than the others.

"Where did you learn to pilot like that, Talisman?" Kira asked.

"A few months of flying in space, trying not to die; it's amazing what the EFA won't do if they think you're not a Natural, but at least they paid for our food."

"That's horrible." Kuzzey, one of the less noticeable members of the group, said.

"That's war." Sai sighed.

"Um, once we get back to the Archangel, I'd like you to fly against me, if you don't mind." Kira suddenly said.

"Kira, didn't you want to avoid fighting?" Sai asked worriedly.

Kira nodded. "I do, but something tells me I can't just pretend as if this war isn't happening. The truth is already in front of our faces, and we can't exactly turn away from it."

He then looked at Talisman in the eyes. "That's why I'm going to fight; if my power can end the war just a bit quicker, then I'm going to do just that. I will protect my friends and the people who live without worrying about war."

Tolle looked at Kira, then at Talisman. "Me too! Talisman, teach me to be a fighter pilot!"

"Tolle?" Miriallia looked at him.

He nods, staring back at her. "Like Kira said, we can't turn away from the war that's in front of us, especially now that we're already involved. Kira," Tolle turns to look at him. "We want to protect you, just as you want to protect us; no way am I letting my friend shoulder all the burden."

"Tolle, but…" Kira started to say before Sai cut him off.

"He's right. We're friends, and if you're risking your neck for us, then the least we can do is help as well."

Talisman took a swig of his drink. "That's nice and all, but…" They all turn to look at him. "This is, after all, a war. You're going to be killing people, are you fine with that?"

Tolle looked a little troubled, but Kira's eyes were still firm.

"I will get stronger, until I'm powerful enough to stop the enemy without killing them."

_Good luck with that. _Talisman silently thought to himself. "Well, it's your call. Once we get back on the ship I'll ask and see if we can have the Strike hooked up to a simulator."

…

…

"So that's the Artemis?" Athrun asked, looking at a picture taken by a long range recon drone.

"Yep, pretty impressive, isn't it? They hollowed out a rock for it and everything." Dearka said while staring at a map projected onto a table, complete with markers, key points, and lines denoting everything they knew about the fortress.

"Why are we sending a kill force for it? Artemis was never a problem before." Nicol asked, also looking at the map and taking notes.

"Well, apart from our attack being driven by the rage of a parent," Rau Le Cruset said while walking in, returning the salutes of his squad. "It's also because high command is worried that the station houses potential prototypes we're not aware of. Plus, taking it out would free our forces to operate around here as we please, if we needed to."

"Your father" Rau looked at Athrun "is also worried about those Moebius pilots we saw." Athrun thought back to the one insignia he managed to see, a dog biting on its chain. "Imagine the type of damage those pilots can do if they got their hands on one of the experimental prototypes…assuming they exist, of course."

"So what's the plan?" Athrun looked at the map, focusing specifically on the key points: the emitters of the Umbrella of Artemis.

…

…

Yzak waited inside the Artemis, having used the unprotected terminal in his room (_the Naturals are idiots_, he thought) to access the local internet. He found out that the Artemis had planned to send a refugee ship loaded with refugees from Heliopolis to Earth. From there, he could make his way to a ZAFT base. Whether if they'll let him keep his status as an elite, Yzak wasn't sure.

But regardless of the consequences, Yzak was driven by a desire to face the ribbon fighter and prove that he was as good as his uniform suggested.

…

"So we're not using the Duel?" Ribbon asked Murdoch as they ate a hurried dinner.

"Kira's the only guy that can program them, and I'm pretty sure none of you are any good in a mobile suit." Murdoch said. "No offense."

"None taken."

"So we're just going to mothball it for the time being. Eventually we'll transfer it to Alaska but I seriously doubt we'll be doing anything more to that."

"Shame."

"No kidding." Murdoch sighed. "When I first saw those Gs I had trouble sleeping. And now the first thing I get to do on it is to take it out of commission." He was ordered to take the cockpit block out entirely to avoid it being hijacked a second time.

…

…

…

"So, what do you think about the base commander?" Murrue said, after the three commanding officers were back aboard the Archangel.

"He's definitely planning something." Mu La Flaga said after stretching. "Did you see how he paid almost no attention to Lieutenant Badgiruel? Definitely not good behavior."

Natarle Badgiruel flinched a tiny bit. "Hearing you refer to me as a Lieutenant is a little grating, Lieutenant Commander La Flaga." They had received (unofficial) promotions given by Gerard Garcia per his powers as the commander in chief of the Artemis station.

La Flaga laughed. "Sorry, sorry." He then returned to being serious. "The man's obviously got his own agendas to pursue, and it might not be good for us; stay on your toes, Murrue."

Lieutenant Commander Murrue Ramius shrugged. "As long as the Archangel is supplied and good to go before the week is up he can do whatever the hell he wants."

…

"Sir, is this alright?" One of Garcia's aides asked him, upon reviewing the documents of transfer he was supposed to use.

"Yeah, it's fine. Damned Coordinators." Garcia said. He did not like the idea that the Atlantic federation could produce pilots good enough to not only fight GINNs on equal footing, but good enough to fight them, be at a disadvantage, and win. Thus, it was only convenient to have them labeled as inhuman.

"But these pilots are…"

"Our _best of the best._" Garcia smirked. "Surely their aces wouldn't have problems with doing a little teaching on their days off."

The aide groaned inwardly. "Yes sir, and about the supplying of the Archangel…"

Garcia waved it off. "Supply them as they request; their failures will not be our issue."

"Yes sir."

…

…

[A day or so later]

…

…

"I take it you're the leader of the Archangel's Aces?" Cipher heard, and turned around to face…

A man he's never met before, but judging by the rank insignias the guy was a top brass.

"No sir, he's doing something else; can I help you with anything?"

"Ah, well, you seem like the most capable member of the bunch." Garcia laughed.

Cipher smiled as well, in a way that was almost feral. _Looks like we have a leech on our hands. _He thought, the mercenary side of him finally happy to have some work.

…

"We're going to have them hooked up in about an hour or so. Until then, you're just going to have to wait." Murdoch said for about the fifth time to a very enthusiastic Tolle.

The Strike and Talisman's Moebius were currently being patched into the Archangel's inter-ship network, where the training programs were located.

"Why can't I just use that one? It's not like they're on duty or anything." Tolle pointed to Ribbon's craft.

"There's a bug with its control program. It's grounded until we get it fixed." One of the mechanics inside the Moebius said.

"With the way they fly these things I'm amazed they're still holding together." Tolle heard another mechanic say.

"No shit. Think Artemis will give us more units?" Said mechanic one.

"They better. Eurasia put a lot of money in the Moebius projects and for once they're winning."

"Will you two shut up and get back to work!?" Murdoch yelled. A pair of "sorry" came from the Moebius cockpit in reply. "Anyways, that's the deal. Until we hook this thing into the system you're just going to have to wait."

Tolle sighed.

"Oy! Kid! How's it going up there!?" Murdoch yelled up to the Strike.

Kira, who was working in the Strike, poked his head out. "Just a little more left." He said, before ducking back in.

"The Archangel really needs a dedicated simulator room." Tolle grumbled.

Murdoch shrugged. "It's supposed to."

…

"Yo. I got some good news and bad news." Cipher clapped Blaze on the back.

Blaze was resting in the Archangel's lounge. "What's the good news?"

"The base commander is a leech and an idiot, so he's going to give us some brand new Moebius crafts."

"How'd that happen?" Blaze turned to look at Cipher sitting down in a soft chair.

"Eurasia was one of the primary sponsors of the TS-MA2 Moebius Project, and we're doing really damn well in the Moebius crafts. Put two and two together."

"He doesn't want Atlantic to take more credit with the new mobile suits; makes sense. So what's the bad news?"

"The base commander is a leech and an idiot, so he's going to give us some dropout pilots to babysit."

Blaze rolled his eyes. One of his wingmen in Strangereal, Archer, was considered to have no talent for flying until he pulled an F-5 out of a hangar in the middle of the base being bombed. "They can't be that bad."

"The man is…very capable at cutting off the fat when it comes to his base." Cipher said, suddenly aware that they were, in fact, talking about a man responsible for keeping the ship they're on in full combat duty.

Blaze was suddenly reminded of Perrault, his old commander on Sand Island. Perrault was also very good at maintaining his power at the cost of efficiency and competency. "I see. But is having more in the air bad?"

"No, it isn't. The true bad news is that the commander is very, very proud of his static defense."

The two aces fondly thought back of the supposedly war-ending super weapons they destroyed.

"Well, shit." Blaze and Cipher said in unison.

…

…

[Some time during the week]

…

…

"Sai, what are you doing? Oh." Miriallia asked, before realizing that Sai was scrolling through a list of names on a wall-mounted display screen.

"A new refugee ship came in earlier, so I wondered…" He trailed off. Miriallia vaguely heard him muttering about the list not having an alphabetical search function.

The two spent an uncomfortable twenty seconds before Sai bolted off without another word.

…

…

[At the end of the week]

…

…

Rau Le Cruset stood in front of the pilots in the fleet in the briefing room. Behind him was an image of Artemis, and four insignias he had managed to scavenge from the surviving GINN black boxes.

"Warriors of ZAFT, I will outline our battle plan against the Artemis space station."

A picture of Artemis with its Umbrella of light deployed was brought up.

"As you know, the Artemis is defended by its laser-based shield system, which protects it against all forms of damage. Because of that, a direct assault is impossible, and a siege against it impractical, therefore…"

A new picture, of a particular gun mounted on their ship, appeared.

"The attack will be divided into three stages: the first stage will consist of a long range attack from the ship-mounted cold artillery to destroy the shield emitters; when the shield emitters have been brought down, the ships will fire all ordnance into the base ports to reduce the enemy deployments."

Various pictures of the Artemis, focusing on several large hangar ports, appeared on the screen.

"The last stage of the attack will be an all-out attack from our Mobile Suit divisions. Your goal, gentlemen, is to completely paralyze the base's ability to fight back and crush Artemis into dust."

Athrun raised his hand.

"Yes, Athrun?"

"What about Yzak?"

Rau smiled. "A special operations force will be deployed to retrieve him."

The insignias of a dog biting on its chain and a Mobius loop appeared on the screen again. "As some of you may be aware, the Federation has recently found some extremely talented pilots. Loathe as I am to say this, if you see these pilots, ignore them and focus on destroying the station; if they're dedicated to chasing you down, request support from nearby allies, or retreat."

The last suggestion brought some murmurs from the pilots.

"We run from Moebius crafts? Really?" One of the pilots laughed. "C'mon, guys. They're cake! They'll show up, we'll pump them full of lead! Boom! Job done."

Rau laughed as well. "If it goes that well, I'll be a happy man. All of you are aware of the situation. Get prepared at once."

…

…

Yzak snuck onto a refugee ship due to deploy to Earth, dressed as plainly as he could with what he stole from an on-ship shop.

…

…

Murrue sat down in the Captain's seat back on the Archangel, the ship ready to deploy after the week of resupply. A moment later, a communications from a ship came in; a ship that Cipher had somehow wheedled the base commander to loan to them as a support craft until the Archangel reached the 8th Fleet.

"Captain Murrue, how's your deployment status?" The other ship's captain asked.

"We're mustering our crew, and will be ready to deploy in fifteen minutes."

"Excellent. I hope that we'll both have a safe voyage."

"Thank you for providing support." Murrue said.

"Think nothing of it. We're all humans, after all."

…

A warning suddenly rang through the base.

"All hands, ZAFT ships have been sighted in probably operational range. All hands, report to your stations."

"ZAFT. Of all the times…" Murrue muttered. "Archangel to Artemis control. Can we still deploy?"

"Negative. They'll chase you down if you deployed now. Sit tight, and eventually they'll go away." The control operator said.

Murrue sighed. "How long would that be?" She asked herself.

…

"Oy, guys, we're deploying."

"Wait, what?"

Blaze looked at the other three pilots, mild confusion written on their faces.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Blaze said simply.

"Same with us, but we're not going to get a clear order with that umbrella blocking our way." Ribbon shrugged.

Talisman was showing some maneuvers to Tolle on a small display. "Besides, the new pilots aren't here, and the new Moebius crafts aren't here. If there's a launch order only Blaze and Cipher can deploy."

As it turned out, Mobius one's craft had sustained a remarkable amount of internal damage due to his piloting, and was cannibalized for parts to keep Blaze and Cipher's crafts afloat. Likewise, Talisman's craft was also scrapped after a thorough search had found its hard points totally melted and unable to function any longer.

"Shit. Well, can't say I'm surprised. Cipher."

Cipher sighed, but got up anyway. "Might as well be on standby."

"Wait, I'm going with you." Kira said, after debating internally for a little while.

"You sure, kid?" Cipher was drafted into helping Talisman with the training sessions, and they both found out that Kira was very good at piloting that Strike of his.

"Yeah; I want to protect everyone."

"Focus on the ship first. If you protect everyone you'll just end up not being able to protect anyone." Cipher warned. Kira gave a good natured salute in response.

…

…

"Range optimal. Ballistic trajectory calculations complete, arming cold."

Rau Le Cruset heard the ship weapon control officer read.

"All ships, coordinate, and prepare to fire on my mark." The ship captain said, looking at a watch.

…

"Mark."

…

"You think they're doing anything interesting out there?" An operator on the Artemis asked her neighbor.

"At that distance? Probably just yell at us." Her neighbor stretched.

Neither of them noticed the small, almost unnoticeable sudden spike of heat that occurred on the ships.

…

"The hell was that?" Cipher suddenly said.

"I don't know, I've got a bad feeling…Murdoch, can we deploy?"

"In your dreams; just because we bolted them up doesn't mean you can fly them." Murdoch was standing next to what looked like a literal junk heap with an engine strapped to it.

…

…

Alarms blared in the station.

"We're taking fire! We're taking fire! Shit! Emitters One and Four have been hit!"

"Bring up the shields! Is there any danger to the shield coverage!?"

…

Rau looked impassively at the display, at the sight of Artemis, being fully covered by its Umbrella of Light.

"We hit two of the five targets; I don't think we'll get a second shot, sir." The captain said, deeply ashamed of his gunner's skill.

The gunner in question owed all of his buddies a round of drinks.

"That's fine. I always have a backup plan." Rau said lightly.

…

…

"What the hell?! Shield Emitter Three is down!" An Artemis operator suddenly said.

"Bring out the cameras!" The chief operator said, dressed as if he rolled out of bed (which he did).

The cameras were active, and…nothing.

They couldn't see anything out of the ordinary as the Umbrella of Artemis continued to cover the base.

Suddenly, another shield emitter was cut to pieces, as they saw a beam of light emit from an unnaturally black part of space.

"Shield Emitter four is down! The shield system has a leak!"

…

…

"Shield system has been compromised! All units! Scramble Launch!"

The catapults on the ZAFT ships worked overtime to launch their mobile suits at the Artemis, which was now covered by a blanket of light with a massive hole in it.

"Natarle! Is everyone back yet?" Murrue asked, the alarm on the system getting to her nerves.

"Everyone is back, plus a few extra."

"Extra?" Murrue couldn't help but ask.

Natarle's face had disapproval written all over it. "Sai brought his girlfriend aboard."

…

"Flay, this isn't a good idea." Sai said for about the fifth time.

"And like I said I'm not going back to Earth while Papa is in space." Flay said for about the fourth time. "And I get to be with you and your friends, so it's a win-win."

Sai could only sigh. "Fine, but stay out of trouble."

…

"Shield emitters six, seven, eight all offline!"

"What the hell is attacking us?!"

…

Nicol took a deep breath in the pilot seat of the Blitz Gundam, before hailing Rau Le Cruset back on his ship. "Nicol here, I've taken out the primary targets. What's next?"

"Find the legged ship; we're going to start phase two."

"Roger."

…

"Energy spikes from the enemy ship! They're going to fire!"

Garcia had reached the command room by now.

"Rotate the station! Don't let them hit us!" The station helmsman roared.

"Firing Thrusters! C'mon, baby, move…!"

…

The ZAFT ships and the Artemis crew watched as the station turned, slowly, to bring about a layer of its shield against the incoming wave of beams and missiles.

And both sides knew: It wasn't going to make it.

…

More warning sirens blared inside the Artemis as the first wave of attacks slammed into its side, destroying installations to pieces and blocking a lot of hangars with debris.

Not all of them though.

…

Garcia gritted his teeth, and raised a station-wide alert.

"All pilots scramble and intercept the enemy immediately! Repeat! Kill every last one of those Coordinator bastards!"

He then raised a specific alert to the Archangel.

"Archangel, have your pilots to deploy as well!"

…

Murrue shook her head. "The crafts they're supposed to fly haven't arrived yet, and our current units are nonoperational." On Cipher's suggestion the Archangel treated the Strike as barely operational: useable as a gun point, but useless once it detaches from the ship.

She heard Garcia swore and close the communication link.

She then heard the door to the bridge open.

"It might be a good idea to get the hell out of here really fast, captain." Blaze said behind her.

"I would, but with the umbrella active like that we're not going to get very far."

Both of them looked ahead at the screen of light outside the dock.

…

"All GINN units! Attack all targets of opportunity! Cripple the station!" Rau Le Cruset found a hangar that wasn't blocked yet and sprayed it with bullets. He was rewarded by a series of explosions from inside the hangar.

"Second Volley, away!" He heard the captain of the fleet say, before opening a private channel. "Nicol, have you located the legged ship?"

"No, I haven't." Nicol said, watching a few of the visual feeds of the small unmanned camera drones fly over the other side of the fortress: it was deemed too risky to send the pilots over to the other side of the station, since it was still covered by the umbrella of light.

Rau heard his unit blare a lock warning, and jinked away from a line of conventional bullet fire.

"Watch yourselves, gentlemen, the station is waking up!"

"Athrun, roger." Athrun dodged a spray of fire from an anti-aircraft gun and fired at it with his rifle, destroying it. He took a moment to look around, and noted with pride how the GINNs were either dodging the attacks from the station or just taking minimal damage, if any.

"Second volley, impact in ten seconds, all units stand clear of impact zone." Rau said, watching his timer. It was actually twenty seconds until impact, but safety is better.

The GINNs that received threat warnings accelerated out of the way as the second barrage of beams and missiles hit the station.

…

"Enemy second wave, hit! Breach detected!" An operator of the station said in a panic.

"Countermeasures! Make sure nobody gets sucked out!" The master operator said.

Garcia gritted his teeth, watching the display of GINNS flying about his fortress like flies while the anti-aircraft guns fire back almost lethargically among the debris, before being destroyed by that unknown red unit.

Correction: By that stolen Red unit.

"Damn those Atlantic bastards, if only they knew what security is." He hissed. "What's the status on the Moebius transfers!?"

"All four units have finished their modifications and are being routed to the Archangel." Another operator said. "We couldn't find the reserve pilots to send to the ship, however."

"That's fine, send them some rookies! Just get them out of the dock!" Garcia could feel one of his veins pop (not that it actually did). _I won't let my reputation be tarnished by losing that ship, goddammit!_

…

"Artemis to Archangel," Natarle heard over the communications, while she hurried coached Miriallia on its usage. "Do you copy?" She nodded at the younger girl.

"This is Archangel, we copy; go ahead, Artemis." Miriallia said, a brief tremble in her voice.

"We have a delivery of Moebius crafts, please open your hangars and prepare them for docking."

Blaze immediately rushed over to the communications. "Do you have four units ready for action?"

"Yes, we do, but…"

"Then fire them up, we'll be out there right now."

"Wait, what are you—"

Blaze had already left the bridge.

Murrue sighed. "Can't blame the man." Then she raised a ship-wide alert. "Razgriz team, you have orders to scramble, meet Blaze in Catapult One."

…

"Oy, Blaze! What the hell are we doing?!" Cipher demanded.

Blaze noted that everyone was already in their flight suits.

"There're four fighters out there with our names on it." He said simply, before clutching what looks like an oversized coat hanger. The other three aces shrugged and did the same.

"Catapult one, soft deploy." One of the hangar crew said, and launched the hanger out at a fairly gentle speed.

…

"Oh, I am liking _this_." Cipher said, after seeing the modified Moebius crafts they'll be flying.

Their new crafts were outfitted with oversized engines that wouldn't have looked out of place on a capital ship. Underneath the two "legs" of the Moebius were Linear Guns, elongated to drive a projectile out of the gun faster. Underneath the middle hardpoint of the craft was a single missile. Their insignias were painted on the back of the Moebius crafts, next to a deployable something and two small orbs.

"What're the new toys we got?" Talisman said as he floated into the cockpit and strapped himself in.

Blaze scanned the document he was handed in a hurry. "The missile is the same large-scale one that our ship uses…"

"That explains why it's so flat." Mobius one muttered, going through the startup sequence.

"The Linear guns are using additional coils, so they hit harder but also burn up faster; we got two more Vulcans than normal and a deployable radiator so we don't catch on fire again. These guys thought of everything." He put the paper detailing the changes to the crafts underneath his seat and strapped himself in.

"Razgriz, check in."

"Two" Cipher.

"Three." Mobius One.

"Four." Talisman.

The four pilots looked to the front of the hangar, and their eyes widened in surprise as the umbrella of light vanished from sight.

…

"What's going on?! What happened to the Umbrella?!" Garcia demanded, watching alerts pop up all over the station.

"We…we don't know, sir! The main system overheated and just shut down! Commencing emergency cooling procedures!"

Garcia swore loudly. "Just get it back online!"

…

"The Umbrella has vanished…? Well, no point waiting for it to come back." The ZAFT fleet captain muttered. "All ships fire long range missiles! Transfer targeting to our spotter units when they're free!"

…

Yzak reclined a little in his chair aboard the refugee ship, allowing a moment of pride as he watched his handiwork.

…

"Nicol, the long range missiles are coming in, you're in charge of units five through nine. Guide them well." Rau said.

"Roger, sir." Nicol watched the readout in one of the monitors change to a display of four missiles, before placing in coordinates into those missiles, guiding them to their destinations.

He then saw an Anti-Aircraft gun pop up next to him, and lazily picked it off with his beam rifle.

…

"Archangel! Deploy immediately! Get out of here!" Garcia roared over the intercom.

Murrue wasn't sure what he was doing, but complied. "Archangel, roger, we'll deploy immediately."

"Razgriz, escort us as we make our way out of the battle zone."

"Razgriz one, roger."

...

Nicol heard one of his alerts go off, and watched a second monitor zoom in to the picture of a hangar…and then the Archangel came slowly into view.

"Captain! I see the enemy ship! I could redirect a missile to hit it!"

"Don't bother; it wouldn't make it." Came Rau's reply.

Nicol was about to argue the point when he saw a wing of four Moebius crafts come into view. He maneuvered his camera above the Moebius crafts and saw the four insignias of the Aces of Strangereal. Well, more specifically, he saw the image of the dog biting on its chain.

"Damn." He said under his breath.

…

"More missiles incoming!" The operator on the station said, watching a swarm of blips come toward the station on the radar display. He didn't catch the sixteen special ones inside the swarm of hundreds, for good reason.

"Intercept!" Garcia roared.

Due to the Umbrella being down, the hangars that were undamaged could actually deploy interceptor crafts for a change, and Moebius crafts started to fly against the missiles.

Which would be a relief, if they survived for more than five minutes; the GINNs were liberally spraying each Moebius craft that came into view with machine gun fire, per their briefings: none of them wanted to be known as a pilot who was shot down by a Moebius craft, after all.

…

"Shit, what are they teaching the other pilots?" Mobius one said, watching yet another allied craft fall under a withering hail of fire.

"How many pilots actually survive out there?" Blaze asked. All of them didn't want to answer.

Blaze then saw a communication request from a particular wing of Mobius crafts. "This is Razgriz one, state your intentions."

"This is Artemis detachment squadrons thirty five and thirty six, we've been transferred to your command."

Blaze heard the tremble in the voice and groaned inwardly. _Rookies_.

"Razgriz one, roger. Stay near and cover the Archangel."

"Blaze, uh. I mean, Razgriz One." He heard someone say.

Kira came onto the screen. "Do I have permission to launch?"

Blaze mulled it over for a moment. "Yeah, but stay near the Archangel for now. Once we're far enough from the station then you can run wild."

"What? Why?"

"Do you think we're going to get away without a chase?" Talisman said, watching his radar: some GINNs have taken notice and were accelerating towards the Archangel.

"Razgriz one to flight, commence interception."

…

"Captain! It's them!" Rau Le Cruset heard one of his GINN pilots say, and zoomed in on the four Moebius crafts with overlarge engines.

"All GINN units: keep your eye out on those units but do not engage! Continue attacking Artemis station!"

…

"The hell is he saying? There's nothing on the station left to shoot at!" The GINN pilot smirked. "Cruset's lost his balls, I say. Let's show these guys what real ZAFT pilots can do!"

…

"Razgriz squadron, you're cleared to engage." Blaze heard over the communications. He still was getting used to hearing Miriallia of all people relaying orders.

"Roger that. Wardog Leader, engage." Blaze.

"Galm one, engaging." Cipher.

"Garuda one, engaging." Talisman.

"Mobius one, engage." Ribbon.

…

Rau Le Cruset felt a sudden chill run through his body.

…

The loudmouth GINN pilot raised his recoilless rifle towards the lead oversized engine Moebius craft, and fired.

Said Moebius craft rolled out of the way and fired back with its two Linear guns.

The pilot felt two massive jolts and the warning in his cockpit told him that he was now missing both of his arms.

…

"What the hell?" The pilot could only watch as the Moebius crafts ignored his now armless suit and go after his squadron.

…

"Report! Michael team has been disabled!"

The Captain of a ZAFT ship looked about in mild confusion: Michael team wasn't exactly the best they had but they certainly weren't rookies either. Was it the Aces Rau had warned them about?

"Have all units use their interlink cameras! Find out what's going on!" He ordered.

…

"They're ignoring us." Cipher said with a mixture of amusement and respect; it takes a lot of guts to ignore someone trying to kill you and focus on your mission.

"Good for them." Blaze said. "Heads up, new group out there. Take them out."

"Got it."

…

"Osprey team, the Aces are heading in your direction, be careful." The Osprey team leader heard over the radio.

"Don't worry, Rau, we'll take care of them." He then raised a general alert.

"Osprey team to all local units, requesting firing support against the Aces."

"Hellion team, roger; can't believe we actually have to try against the Naturals."

"Rosemary team, we're en route."

"Quail team, got it."

"Miguel team, we're here."

…

"Oh, looks like we got a lot of attention." Blaze was surprised to see some twenty-odd GINNs raise their guns at the four of them. "Two, you're with me, we're heading in."

"Cipher, got it."

"Three and Four, we're counting on you."

"Roger."

…

"Enemy lead units are accelerating!" Rosemary team leader said, surprised.

"Yeah, what can they do-" Her teammate's response was cut off when a shot hit her unit square in the head.

"What the-damn!" Rosemary leader looked around frantically before jinking away from a spray of Vulcan fire, only to be hit in the right leg by a Linear gun shot.

"All units, their linear guns are faster than normal! Don't get distracted!" She said as she pulled out her two machine guns and fired at the Moebius crafts speeding past her.

…

"I got the dual wielder." Talisman said with Rosemary leader's back square in his sights. He depressed the trigger and raked the engine with Vulcan fire.

…

"Rosemary leader is down!" One of the Rosemary wingmen said, as the leader watched the four units fly past her and through the blanket of machine gun fire.

…

"Whoa. We don't have a good angle to attack like this." Cipher said, rolling and dodging through the GINN fire.

"We do." Talisman laughed, enjoying the relative lack of machinegun fire in his airspace as he sighted what was his fourth GINN of the minute and fired his linear guns.

"Hey, ZAFT. Look at us for a moment, will ya?" Mobius one said lazily, shooting out the engines on yet another GINN.

…

"Shit, we're losing ground!" Hellion leader hissed. "All units spread out! Don't make yourselves an easy target!"

The Hellion team spread out like they were told, but as a result their fire dissipated for just a moment.

That brief moment was all Blaze and Cipher needed.

The Hellion team was now missing various arms and legs (and a head) on their GINNs.

…

Rau Le Cruset shook his head. "Nevermind them. Athrun, Dearka, Nicol. We're targeting the legged ship." He received three affirmatives in reply.

…

"Archangel, be advised, the Cruset team is heading in your direction." Blaze said, after Talisman alerted him on the location of said Cruset team.

"Roger, can you guys make it back?"

"Negative, we're still engaged with the enemy forces." Cipher said. Although they were able to disable a fair amount of GINNs, all of them were perfectly fine with using their guns with their other arms or firing without the assistance of their main cameras. The end result being that the Aces were having a harder time than normal, because they were up against twenty enemies, some of them firing a little wildly.

"Kira, your turn." Blaze said simply.

"Roger. Kira Yamato, Strike, engaging the enemy!"

…

"Archangel will be out of the combat area in five minutes."

…

"That's…the unit we didn't recover!" Athrun said upon seeing the Strike.

"Inside that unit…is it Athrun?" Kira wondered, before opening a general communications link. "Strike to Aegis. Athrun, is it you?"

"Kira…" Athrun's shock was written on his face. "Kira, why are you with the Naturals?! You're a Coordinator!"

Kira mulled it over for a fraction of a second. "I am here because I want to be; there are people I want to protect on that ship." He raised his Strike's gun towards the Aegis. "Athrun. You're my friend, so I don't want to fight you. Please, leave the combat area."

"Kira…" Athrun raised his gun as well. "I have my duty towards ZAFT. I'm sorry, but I'll bring you back with me, so please don't resist."

Athrun depressed his trigger, and almost immediately heard the incoming fire warning and barely got out of the way. His shot as a result went wide.

"Athrun. You're wrong about one thing: Coordinators, Naturals, we're all human in the end." Kira, in the Aile Strike, pulled out a beam saber to complement his rifle, and threw his shield away. "I may be a Coordinator on a ship of Naturals, but before that… I am a human!" With that, Kira opened his engines to maximum thrust.

Athrun dodged three shots from Kira's beam rifle before he found himself staring down Kira's beam saber.

Kira had learned well from Talisman (and Cipher, who helped out during training). All the moments where he hesitated during training was rewarded by either one of the two aces pounding his head in, super powered prototype notwithstanding. With his skills as a Coordinator and experience of being toyed with for hours on end in the simulator by the Demon Lord of the Round Table and the Angel of Gracemeria, Kira is now miles ahead of what he would have been.

Athrun felt his blood freeze, but Kira had zero intentions of destroying the Aegis to begin with; instead, Kira slashed the Aegis's beam rifle to shreds before boosting back hard to dodge a shot from the Buster.

"Shit. Athrun! You alright there?!" Dearka locked onto the Strike, letting Kira know that he was being targeted. Dearka fired as quickly as he could, but Kira's convoluted evasion cause him to miss cleanly every single time. "What's with this bastard!? He's even faster than those Moebius crafts!"

Kira, meanwhile, was muttering to himself. "Don't stand still, keep moving. Watch for the opening…"

The opening, in this case, was Dearka needing to take a moment for the gun to cool.

"…and strike!" Kira pulled the trigger three times.

"Oh shit!" The buster's thrusters were enough to save it from being hit directly, but as Dearka's cockpit says, the leg sections were grazed and were now demanding to be maintained.

"One more!" Kira took aim at the Buster's head, and fired a shot.

Dearka wasn't able to stop his unit in time.

The beam struck a something dark that had zoomed up in front of the Buster.

"Dearka! Don't get careless!" Nicol said, his Blitz Gundam showing up in the infrared sensors of the nearby crafts.

"Damn. Who'd thought the boy from back when would actually be this good." Rau Le Cruset muttered, trying to find an opening in the blanket of fire that covered the Archangel. "No, that's not quite right…who'd thought that he would find such a talented teacher, right? Mu La Flaga!"

Mu, meanwhile, was sulking on the bridge because the Moebius Zero wasn't cleared for takeoff.

…

"Athrun, Dearka, we'll take him on together." Nicol said, as Athrun shook his head to get the fear out of his system.

"Got it. Nicol, we'll follow your lead." Athrun said, activating the beam saber in the undamaged arm.

"Huh? Uh, right." Nicol said while looking at a series of screens as presented to him by the cameras re-routed to this battlefield. "Dearka, open fire, use ballistic arms too; it's fine if the Armor blocks it."

"Alright, but you better know what you're talking about, man." Dearka locked onto the Strike again, and fired the Buster's missiles.

The Strike backpedaled by turning a full 180 degrees around to use the main thrusters, and then turning back around to pick off the missiles with the Vulcans.

"Shit, now what?" Dearka said, rising to avoid a counter-fire (3 shots very fast together) from the Strike.

Nicol didn't answer; rather, his Blitz did the talking for him, as he fired at Kira from below the Strike, without using the targeting system.

"Whoa!" Kira heard his alarms blare and twisted in an extremely odd angle to dodge the fire from below him.

"Jeez! What's with this guy!?" Nicol accelerated out of the way from the counter-attack fire. "Athrun! Go for it!"

Kira was muttering to himself again. "If I'm being attacked, I should expect to continue being attacked, and if I can counter, I should even if I can't see, thus…!"

Athrun sped downwards toward the Strike, which was facing downwards when it was counter attacking the Blitz. "Kira, don't move!" Athrun said to himself.

Kira, after having been shot at countless times to his back during training by Cipher and Talisman, instinctively, and with his beam saber active, turned at maximum thrust.

Athrun saw a white blur, and then felt his unit shake as his unit's arm was knocked away by a blur of green.

Kira, a little dizzy from the g-force, brought his unit back to a standstill (getting dizzier from the g-force) and aimed his beam rifle, right at the head of the Aegis, and pulled the trigger.

Athrun pressed a button, and the Aegis transformed into its Mobile Armor form, resembling a claw. Which he opened to try and grab the Strike. The beam rifle fire aimed at his head flew off into space, as the target it was trying to hit no longer existed.

Kira maneuvered his Strike for a shoulder charge into the Aegis, right into the claw.

The resulting force stunned Athrun for a brief moment, which was all Kira needed; the Strike spun around and fired its engines at full power, escaping from the Aegis and damaging it with the fire from the engine.

"Kira…" Athrun looked on at the Strike's back in a mixture of shock and awe.

"Athrun! You alright in there?!" Dearka said, taking shots at the Strike without the use of the targeting system. After the first few shots he made a mental note to practice shooting without targeting, since his shots were going nowhere close to the Strike. He also kept himself moving while shooting, which, while making his aim worse, was also proving to be quite a bit more helpful on evading the counter fire from the Strike, which came with alarming frequency and were almost all near-hits.

"I'm fine. My threat radar's going crazy though." Athrun said; his cockpit was practically glowing red with the sheer amount of alerts coming from every piece of the Aegis's body that sustained burn damage.

…

"Yo! Kira! Need a hand?" Blaze said.

"Blaze! Yeah, a little help would be nice." Kira dodged another wave of fire from the almost invisible Blitz and the long distance Buster.

"Razgriz! On me!" Blaze received three affirmatives in reply, and the four Moebius crafts dove down onto the Buster, peppering it with Vulcan fire.

"Archangel to all units, we're going to leave the battlezone at maximum acceleration in sixty seconds, return to the ship." Murrue said over the radio.

"Roger that; Kira, return to the ship, we'll cover your six."

"Kira Yamato, roger." Kira dodged yet another spray of fire from the Blitz while shooting back to give himself some cover, and flew towards the Archangel. "What about the Rookies?" He asked nobody in particular.

"Don't worry about them; we recovered them a while back since they kept getting in the way of our anti-air fire." Murdoch said, laughing.

…

"Cruset team, we're done here; let's go back; the Archangel will leave the combat area soon." Rau said as he accelerates away from the Archangel at last. He was also giving a wide berth to the Strangereal Aces that were heading to the Archangel.

"Roger. Damn." Athrun was both disappointed and angry that Kira not only outperformed him but had apparently allied with the Naturals. And kicked his ass, to boot.

The Aegis (now looking much worse for the wear), Buster, and Blitz accelerated out of the combat area, to be replaced by a veritable swarm of GINNs, many of them missing pieces from their body.

"Shit. Razgriz, we have visitors." Cipher said, looking at the GINNs behind them.

…

"Artemis, shield emitter backup generators ready to go."

…

"Razgriz three, what are you doing?" Natarle demanded, after seeing Mobius One do a very sudden about face and slow down to meet the GINNs.

Mobius One didn't answer, and instead flipped his communications to an open channel.

"To all ZAFT units, leave the combat area. This is your only warning; continue to approach, and I will be shooting to kill."

…

"Asshole, like I'm gonna let you walk all over us like that!" The ZAFT Hellion Team leader snarled, and fired a shot from his bazooka-looking recoilless rifle. His GINN then suffered a direct hit in the cockpit block and went silent.

Mobius One barely bothered to evade the incoming fire as it flew harmless away into deep space.

"What the…the captain's been hit!" A Hellion team Member said, raising his gun in rage; his squadmates followed his example.

They had barely managed to fire a few shots before three shots from the linear guns found their way to the cockpit blocks of those GINNs.

"Oy, ZAFT pilots," The ZAFT pilots heard over the communications; a voice from a different person, much older than the first guy. "The only reason you're still alive is because we've been trying to avoid a kill shot. Run along home like good little boys now."

…

Garcia rubbed his temples. _I know what he said, but damn. To think we would want to leave monsters alive for later._

"Umbrella's backup shield emitters are ready to deploy! Main shield system cooling complete!"

Garcia took a deep breath. "Deploy shield!"

…

"Whoa! What the hell!?" Dearka's unit spun a little wildly as the Artemis's Umbrella of Light deployed yet again, this time covering the whole base.

"I guess we overstayed our welcome. All units, mission complete, return to your carriers." Rau Le Cruset said, his voice somewhat harder than usual.

"We can wait until the new generators die out and then mount a new attack, right?" Nicol said as he scanned Artemis for its new emitter locations.

"Well, we crippled the station either way; even if we leave it alone for now it won't be useful for the duration of war." Athrun said, watching the shield flicker as debris from inside the Artemis float into it.

"What are our losses?" Rau asked the fleet captain.

"A few of our ships were hit by long distance counter battery fire, but they're still afloat. Six GINNs were killed, twelve crippled." An operator said. "On the plus side we killed about a million Moebius crafts and a star base, so I think we came out ahead." He added to himself.

Rau smiled; the man forgot to turn his microphone for his additional comment.

Nicol then received another alert on the Blitz. "Captain. I picked up Yzak's SOS signal. I'm almost out of energy, but I can go recover him."

"Negative; we have a shuttle for that. Give them the coordinates and let them handle it."

"Roger."

…

"Razgriz team has bolted onto the Archangel."

Deeming the docking sequence too time consuming, the four Aces of Strangereal elected to use their grapples and tie themselves to the "wings" on the Archangel. Right now the four Moebius crafts had reeled themselves in and had their folding radiators deployed to bleed off the heat from their engines.

"Good work out there, kid." Blaze said to Kira. "Nice to see that training pay off well."

"Yes, sir. It was thanks to your support." Kira said, his adrenaline finally levelling off. "But I never expected Mr. Ribbon to be so…well…"

Blaze chuckled. "Oh, he's not bloodthirsty; those guys would've continued to pursue if we didn't give them enough incentive."

…

Yzak was found in a deployed refugee ship that had a malfunctioning engine due to debris, and was promptly recovered by the ZAFT special operation soldiers. The ship itself was given some quick repairs so it would return to Earth on time; the ZAFT military weren't in the mood to attack civilians.

Instead, they were all (Yzak included) looking forward to a compiled video stream concerning some very interesting units that the Earth Federation was fielding.

…

…

"To all units, this is the compiled footage concerning the enemy's custom Moebius units. Study it, and learn from it."

Athrun, Dearka, Nicol, and Yzak (in a brand new red uniform, no less) were watching the footage in the ship lounge with the other pilots.

"Yzak, what did you do to the station?" Nicol asked him while the video was being prepared.

"I slipped a bug into it that made the cooling system computers malfunction." He said with a smirk. What he didn't say was that the Artemis's firewalls were good enough that the only thing he could do was to slip in such an otherwise innocuous virus. "If it wasn't giving out the right readouts, the cooling units won't work to keep the Umbrella working, and it burns itself to the ground."

"That's...pretty smart." Nicol said. Everyone caught the implied message, and Yzak bopped Nicol on the head in retaliation.

"Hey!" Nicol rubbed his head.

"We got it working, now pay attention." One of the technicians at the front said.

…

"Holy..." Dearka breathed, transfixed by the pilots in the customized Moebius units as they danced through the barrage of machine gun fire laid down upon them. Even though he had fought against them before, it was only when he saw them dance through fire thick enough to blanket the screen did he fully appreciate just how valuable the stolen Buster was in saving his life.

"Yeah." Yzak was focused entirely on the one with the Ribbon Insignia, who was unerringly hitting anything and everything in front of him, even when he was being targeted by his prey.

_Kira must have learned from these guys…If that's the case… _Athrun thought, feeling the fear rising through his body before he forced it down again.

…

Once the footage ended, the lounge, which before was at least full of conversation, was deathly silent.

All of the pilots (and some crew who came to watch) were now keenly aware that the only reason they were alive was because the pilots in the custom Moebius crafts were firing only to disable. The fact that, despite all of them expending almost all of their ammo blanketing the combat area, not a single Moebius craft sustained anything remotely resembling battle damage (that the footage could see) made them realize just how badly outclassed they were. If the nervous laughter that was popping up was any indication, some of them were having trouble accepting that idea.

None of them, except for perhaps Nicol and Yzak, noticed that the pilots could only fly as they did because they supported and covered for each other; every time the front units streaked past a GINN and caused it to turn just a fraction, it would be hit almost instantaneously in the arm or the back by another unit. Nicol was, at one point, timing their attacks to a metronome inside his head.

After nearly a minute of everyone just sitting there, staring at a freeze frame of the last picture of the footage: the picture of a dog biting its chain…

There was a loud noise that jolted everyone awake.

Athrun had given himself a wake-up slap to the face. "Yzak, Dearka, Nicol. Simulators. Now."

Yzak grimly nodded, slightly smirking. He made no mention of the small bead of sweat that floated from his forehead.

Dearka blinked, looked down, and found his hands trembling.

Nicol was busy writing furiously in a little pocketbook that he carried with him, his face several shades paler than it normally is. His face was concentrated in a look that was some mixture of terror and resolution.

Athrun looked to the other pilots, and saw the fear that was apparent in their eyes, heard some of the nervous laughter that was just beginning to bubble up. He then took a deep breath. "They're better than us; we've just seen it. We have a lot of work to do, for ZAFT."

He then walked out of the lounge, followed by the rest of the Cruset team, with Nicol bumping into the door frame, so engrossed in his writing.

The rest of the pilots sat in silence a little while longer, looking at each other, before the respective squadron leaders ushered their squads to training.

…

"Was that ok? We might have gone overboard." One of the technicians responsible for compiling the footage asked.

Rau Le Cruset clapped the man on the shoulder. "Yeah. I have to thank those pilots if I ever get to meet them; they'll propel the ZAFT army to a brand new level." The technicians were instructed focus on footage from the units that sustained fire and units that were in the heat of the action. As a result, the Aces of Strangereal appeared a lot faster and a lot more vicious than they were, attacking and weaving near the cameras almost as if using magic.

Well, as far as Rau Le Cruset is concerned, they might as well be made of magic.

"Compile their flight data, and send it to the ZAFT high command. Advise them that this should be the new standard all ZAFT pilots should expect to fight against." He then told the technicians. _Even if it is untrue…no, the Federation will have this data too._

"Got it."

…

…

"Footage is out; it looks pretty good, Commander." One of Garcia's underlings said.

Per Cipher's suggestion, Gerard Garcia had managed to capture all four pilots and their flying in a much more complete fashion than ZAFT, and the Artemis technicians had also compiled it into a video that was full of "action shots" depicting Moebius crafts shooting down GINNs while doing some extremely fancy flying. Unfortunately, it merely looked like badly made war propaganda, and the end result wasn't nearly as good as it was compared to the ZAFT version. It did wonders for morale however, especially to some new pilots assigned to fly in Moebius crafts; it made them think they would actually survive their first battles.

He also submitted the flight data in its entirety to the Earth Federation (Eurasia) high command and the Artemis simulators, with the express order that all pilots should practice against that data until they can keep up, by any means necessary.

He also, with a brilliant stroke of foresight (if he does say so himself) suggested that the improved Linear Gun should be mass produced for all of their Moebius crafts in the Federation Forces.

The Artemis pilots were much more successful in recognizing the effectiveness of squadron based combat than their ZAFT compatriots, which was about the only thing they did better, even with the complete data that they had.

…

In his office, a man in a crisp blue shirt viewed the video sent to him by the Federation with ill-disguised contempt.

"Naturals my ass. These guys are just as bad as the damned monsters in space."

He then took a deep breath.

"Well, I'll have them die for me; it will be just a matter of patience."

…

"I'll have my enemies dead before me; just you wait, you damned Coordinators! For a blue and pure world!"

…

…

…

{ === + === }

Author Notes

Not gonna lie, had some trouble finding a place to stop.

Give me some feedback on whether if anything's confusing or whatever, since I could use guidance here and there.

Blitz is cool. I mean…Gundam painted black with the ability to just vanish? Perfect special ops unit right there. I figured Nicol should do operations instead of just straight up fighting (hence him having guidance of the long range cruise missiles)

Overall I personally liked how the Artemis battle turned out. It was a lot more involved than I had anticipated. Artemis's Umbrella in the show (I haven't seen the HD-remaster, mind you) lasted for like, a single hit from Nicole, which was probably good for animation budgets, but since I don't have one I can go a little crazier.

An animation budget, I mean. Not that I have a Blitz either, but…


	4. Stage 4 - Songstress of Junius Seven

"Archangel, all units recovered." Miriallia said, after the Moebius units were finally recovered into the ship.

"Ugh, finally; too much sitting and doing nothing." Blaze grumbled, finally unstrapping himself from the seat.

…

"It a pity the escort ship didn't make it." Murrue mused. The escort ship that was supposed to go with them was trapped in the dock when the entrance was blocked by debris.

"Yeah; what's going to happen now?" Natarle wondered while looking at the small speck in the distance of the view port that was Artemis, its Umbrella shimmering as debris from the station kept on floating into it.

"Odds are? We're going to be pursued." Mu said. "I'll be surprised if ZAFT will let those guys go after what happened back there."

"Well, the Archangel has better acceleration than the Nasca class cruisers ZAFT is fielding, so we'll be fine." Natarle said with pride in her voice.

"Didn't help us the first time." Mu couldn't help but say in an undertone, earning him a dirty look from the severe black-haired lady.

…

…

…

"Captain Cruset, are we going to be pursuing that legged ship?" One of the other ship captains asked him over the ship communications.

"We are, but not before resupplying; no point pursuing the enemy if we don't have mobile suit support."

"Yeah." The captain sighed before signing off; his ship used to house the Hellion team, and their immediate and sudden death at the hands of a single Moebius (modifications or no) was shocking, to say the least.

Rau Le Cruset sat back in the captain's seat and couldn't help but sigh as well.

"Something on your mind?" The ship's captain, Fredrik Ades, said while walking onto the bridge with two drinks in his hand.

Rau gratefully took one of them. "Yeah. How are the pilots coping?"

"Not well; except for your boys most of them are either some form of denial."

"Oh?"

"That video you made was a little too good." Fredrik took a sip of his drink. "It made the Naturals seem unbeatable."

"Ask the Reds and they'll tell you they really are." Rau chuckled at that remark from one of the ship's operators; according to Fredrik they had watched the battle between the stolen Gundams and the Strike (from the back of the room) with an odd mix of fascination, horror, and excitement.

"Well, I might have gone a little overboard, but I assure you, the training will be worth it."

"Do you think high command will push for those changes to the recruit training like you asked?"

"Probably not." Rau smiled. "Patrick is very stubborn; it's one of his good traits, after all."

…

As it so happens, Patrick Zala had the video censored even within the ZAFT military, under the belief that it would be harmful for troop morale; a part of him lamented the loss of such useful propaganda footage, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that a war fought under the belief that you will eventually lose is a war that should be avoided.

…

"And what do you think the Naturals are doing?" Fredrik asked with a small chuckle.

"Why, continue being xenophobic and useless, of course!" Rau said, and broke into full out laughter, not shared in its intensity by the rest of the bridge crew.

…

"Well, shit." Cipher muttered, looking at a discreet mail sent to him by Garcia, commander of the Artemis station.

The Earth Federation Army high command had released their video as a pure propaganda move (despite Garcia's suggestions) and as an end result almost nobody, in or out of the military, took it seriously.

Almost nobody, because the crew (especially the pilots) of the Artemis station now worshipped the Strangereal aces as if they were gods, and logged a truly staggering amount of simulation time trying to be like them.

…

[Some time later]

…

"What's up?" Ribbon asked a disgruntled Talisman.

"It's the rookies. They're refusing practice on moral grounds."

Cipher perked up. "Wait, what?"

"Yep. Something about not wanting to learn from a space monster." Talisman said, shrugging.

Blaze growled. "Makes sense, much as I hate to admit it." During the start of the Circum-Pacific war many Yuktobanian flight instructors in Osea were apprehended or detained in some way, on the simple basis of them being from nations at war with each other. Many Osean pilots also refused to fly in Yuktobanian skies and were arrested for insubordination, at least until the war got going in earnest.

Cipher had an expression that just screamed "dull surprise."

"So the rookies won't train to be better because they think anyone better than them are space monsters. I had no idea they wanted to die that quickly." He deadpans, before getting up.

"Where are you going?" Talisman asked as Cipher headed out of the officer lounge.

"To beat in some heads." He said before leaving.

…

"What? You want to run a live training exercise?" Natarle said with no small amounts of shock, while trading looks between Murrue and Mu.

Both of them shrugged in response.

"I'm worried about the state of readiness of our loan pilots from Artemis." Cipher sounded more diplomatic than normal, Mu noted.

Murrue shrugged again after giving the idea a minute of consideration. "We're currently not being pursued, so I don't see why not."

"Captain…!" Natarle started, before Cipher cut her off.

"Thank you Captain Ramius; we'll get the boys ready right away." He said as he left the office, much too quickly.

"Are you sure about this?" Natarle said, almost accusingly.

Murrue blinked. "It'll be a good way to get the rookies some experience; so why not?"

…

"Why are we learning from a Coordinator?" A rookie asked another.

"Because he's got the captain in his pocket." Came the laughing reply.

"His pants, more like." Said another.

"Cut the chatter, and get focused." Cipher said sharply.

"Sorry, _sir_." The rookies said, their tone indicating absolutely zero respect.

Cipher sighed inwardly. "We will now begin our combat training; get ready."

…

Cipher seethed inwardly. _Damn you, Garcia, you and your nuggets. No wonder Artemis blew to pieces._

And it was as he saw: the rookies had serious issues just trying to keep their units pointed in the right direction, and often they nearly flew into each other or couldn't use their vectored thrusts correctly, causing a lot of swearing on the lines and quite a few near-death accidents.

He finally couldn't take it anymore. "How did any of you earn your wings?"

"We were just transferred to Artemis before it was attacked, what did you expect, _sir_." Came a Rookie's accusatory reply.

"I was expecting you to do more than just shoot your damned mouth off." Cipher replied. This was really not his field of expertise.

"Sir, we're Naturals."

Cipher couldn't help but laugh at that one. "Oh! That's good! Is that what you want to hear when you die out here?" He then changed his tone to mock the young pilot. "You weren't meant to live, because you're a Natural and can't do anything, right?"

No response.

Cipher's voice changed once more. "Out here, there's no distinction between Naturals, Coordinators, Space Monsters, or whatever the hell you can think of. Right now, you are all pilots, flying under the same rules as everyone else. If you don't want to learn from someone not like you? Fine, then die out there on the battlefield with your pride." Cipher grinned, "If you think your complaints can save your asses from a real bullet, then go right on ahead and run your mouth until you die. If you have an actual pair of balls, then learn to fly like it; if it makes it any easier on you, treat me like I'm a goddamn Demon from hell. I don't care, as long as you can fly right."

A momentary pause, then…

"Sir," The rookie lacked his usual bravado. "Coordinators are better in every way, how do you expect us to beat them?"

"You fly to survive. If you can do that, then you can worry about winning." Cipher said, remembering some of the words spoken by a certain instructor in Belka. "And to survive, you have to fly with everything you've got. Not just your own abilities, but the abilities of your wingmen."

"Can't be a hero if you don't work alone." One of them said sulkily.

"Yeah." Cipher agreed. "But you're not out here to be a hero. If you do, then all you're going to do is die."

Silence.

"I'm done arguing the point." Cipher said after a few seconds. "If you think your pride can make you fly better, then prove it right here, right now. Otherwise, shut up and train like you mean it."

…

…

"Sounds like the problem is solved." Blaze said with a hint of skepticism in his voice.

"If they didn't believe us back at Artemis I don't see why they would start now. I guess Cipher's gonna have to pull ranks on them to get them to behave." Ribbon shook his head. "I know they're rookies, but are they really that undisciplined?"

"Eurasia and Atlantic branches of the EFA always had strained relations. I guess Garcia just dumped his worst pilots on us." Mu sighed. "Not to get sidetracked, but...Ribbon."

"Yes?"

"It would be an honor if you taught me everything you know." Mu said, begging with his hands. "Pretty please?" He added a wink at the end.

…

…

[Some days later]

…

…

"Know what this is about?"

"Not a clue."

Mu and Ribbon were swapping theories as to what the sudden summons for all the officers was about; theories ranged from "Birthday party" to "Natarle baked a cake for everyone."

The two had been in the simulator for the better part of a few hours so they were both rather hungry.

…

"We're here, captain. What's the news?" Mu said, saluting once he got onto the bridge.

"We picked up an emergency signal beacon." Murrue said, nodding towards Miriallia.

"From where?" Kira asked. (Mu had passed by him on the way and dragged him to the bridge, despite Kira not being an officer).

"From the debris belt." Miriallia replied. The Debris belt was, as the name implied, a ring of space junk left over from humanity's exertions in space. (Technically it was more of a sphere, but since the majority of the junk was orbiting around the equator most people just call it a belt instead).

"We're not going into there, are we?" Mu asked with raised eyebrows.

"We're not." Murrue shook her head. "We need to rendezvous with the 8th fleet and we're still being pursued; the detour will take us too long and give ZAFT the chance to catch up. However…"

"We can't just let someone die in space." Kira finished for her, looking grim. Murrue nodded.

"That said, there is always the chance of the beacon being a dud." Natarle interjected, earning her a blank look from some people in the process. "It is a possibility, no matter how remote."

Murrue sighed. "She's right, which is also why we can't take a detour, which is why we're all here right now."

"We're going to send a detachment?" Mu's eyebrows almost melted into his hair.

Murrue nodded. "That's the idea; any takers?"

"Um…" Miriallia started to say, catching everyone's attention. "The signal is also coming from a ZAFT ship, if that matters any."

"ZAFT ship?" Ribbon voiced everyone's confusion. "What's a ZAFT ship doing in the belt in one piece?"

Everyone looked around at one another in mild confusion, before something clicked in Kira's head.

"I'll go." He said. "The Strike has greater operational range than the Moebius or the Zero."

"Ooh! Good for you, kid. What if this is an ambush?" Mu said, fake jovialness in his voice.

"Well…have him tow the Zero in?" Ribbon mused. "It'll save the problem of him not having a wingman."

"That's true, and…wait! Why am I going?" Mu sounded shocked.

…

"Loading spare batteries onto the Zero."

"Mu La Flaga, roger. Sheesh…"

Mu sat in the Moebius Zero's cockpit, watching a large oversized energy canister (dubbed batteries by the uncreative staff) be dragged through the loading dock for attaching to one of his hardpoints, leaving him with two gunbarrels instead of the usual complement of four.

With a little creative engineering, Murdoch was able to fashion a crude system for energy transfer between two compact batteries, allowing the Strike to "refuel" in flight without the use of another Strike Pack. The fact that it actually fitted onto the Zero (Murdoch had made it as a sort of a hobby) was only an added bonus.

"Sir?"

"Ah, nothing." Mu forgot that Miriallia could hear him.

"Lieutenant La Flaga." He heard Murrue say.

"Yes, captain?"

"Well…you know what's in the debris belt; be careful, and watch Kira's back."

"Not gonna tell me to watch mine?" Mu laughed slightly.

"I think you'll be just fine." Murrue said, a little frostily.

…

A short while later, he was watching the Sword Strike's engine running in front of him while being towed by a grapple cable.

…

"La Flaga, sir?" He heard Kira over a private line.

"No need for the sir; what's on your mind?" Mu was glad for a little company; the flight was going to be fairly long, after all.

"Is there something unusual in the debris belt?"

Mu went to stroke his chin but found his helmet in the way. "Not really? There's trash, maybe unexploded ordnance, and pirates. Beyond that it's pretty normal."

Kira momentarily wondered what definition of "normal" Mu had.

"Why did you ask? Worried about something?"

"Yeah, well…Heliopolis was a neutral colony, so we could get satellite TV from PLANT."

Mu wasn't sure where this was going, so he didn't respond.

"And, well, I heard once that ZAFT makes routine trips to remains of Junius Seven as a part of some program they had."

Mu sat up straight (as straight as he could under the circumstances).

"So you're thinking that this crippled ship belongs to one of those expeditions?"

"Yeah." Kira said with a small nod to himself.

Mu's mind was racing. _If the kid is right, then that ship has the high possibility of containing someone valuable to the ZAFT top brass, especially if this trip is done right now for political reasons within their own government. But if he's dead, then there's a good chance the EFA's going to be blamed for killing a noncombatant. _He then mentally shrugged. _Given that the EFA's greatest claim to fame is nuking a farming colony I can't see how ZAFT's propaganda machine could spin it any worse._

"Alright, head there at maximum thrust; I want to be back before the day is over." Mu commanded.

"Roger!"

…

…

"I wish I could've gone with them." Tolle said, slightly wistfully. "It would've been my first mission, too."

"Not a good omen to visit a graveyard on your first trip." Talisman said lightly.

"Yeah, but it would've been good experience anyways." Tolle sighed.

Once again, Talisman was stuck babysitting the teenagers on the ship (given age similarities). If nothing else it gave him an idea of what the moral support around Kira was like, and it gave him a reason to slack off, which was good.

New this time was a girl with long red hair. A little inquisition later told him that she was Flay Allster, Sai's girlfriend (through arranged marriage) and the hottest girl back in Heliopolis, based on the relatively small sample size of one.

Which, honestly, told him very little about her personality, and forced him to extrapolate based on what he knew about the Allster family instead.

"Sai, why is Kira flying that machine? Isn't he a student like us?" Flay asked.

"He's made a pledge to protect us and help end this war; in our own way, we're going to help him right back, because he's our friend." Sai responded.

According to what Talisman could gain from various news outlets, the Allster's head of household, George Allster, was quite famous with his reputation as a family man in a political climate rife with people trumpeting their family purity, and had gained a little bit of bemused notoriety for his near-constant doting of his daughter. _This implies that Flay here might be spoiled rotten. _Talisman thought worriedly. _Spoiled rotten on love and not a small amount of problematic ideology._

"Well, yeah, but…isn't he a Natural? How could he fly something like that without any training?" Flay asked.

"Being a Natural isn't a justification; what really matters is your skills, and how willing you are to compensate for your weaknesses." Talisman said idly, not really paying attention.

"Huh?"

He sighed. "Kira has been practicing almost constantly ever since he decided to fight. Add on the fact that he is a Coordinator and, frankly, I'm not worried about him at all." _The rookies, on the other hand…_

"Kira's a Coordinator?! Aren't we fighting the Coordinators?!" Flay exclaimed, dropping her voice to a hiss as if it was some great secret.

"On the surface, sure." Talisman said. "But very rarely are wars motivated by just plain hatred; there needs to be some reason for declaring war." He stared directly at Flay, who immediately began fidgeting under his gaze. "There's no such thing as a war where one side is perfectly evil and another perfectly good, girly."

Flay flinched a little. "But…but dad said that all Coordinators are evil."

"You've seen Kira. Would you say he's evil?" Talisman asked.

Flay slowly shook her head. "No…he's nice and polite, if a little weird sometimes."

"Yeah. It's never a good idea to believe that all people on the other side are evil; remember that the war started because the Naturals decided to nuke a colony." He stared at her again. "If you were to meet a Coordinator aside from Kira, how do you plan to convince them that you are, in fact, not an inhuman monster?"

Flay didn't have an answer, and instead mumbled something under her breath.

"So, uh, Talisman." Sai said, trying to change the subject since it seemed like Flay was about to cry. "What do you think the reason for the start of the war was?"

_Before Bloody Valentine? _"It's hard to say, actually." Talisman said after a moment of thought. "The EFA had no reason to invade a series of colonies, especially when Earth has more resources overall, a higher standard of living, and generally better conditions." He shrugged. "I say it was because the EFA high command was insane; I hope they died fast and early, otherwise we're all fighting a war for someone else's personal feelings."

…

…

[A few hours later]

…

…

"Kira, I'll give you the updated coordinates to the signal, hold on a minute."

Kira patiently waited for a minute.

"What the…the ship has moved more than expected."

"It's a trap after all?" Mu muttered, releasing the grapple from the Strike and coiling it back onto the Moebius Zero.

"It could have just hit some debris." Kira said, but he unhooked the oversized sword from the Strike's back just in case.

"You're going into the debris belt, please be careful." Miriallia said.

…

There was enough space between debris to comfortably fly a mobile suit around.

…

"There it is." Kira said after a few minutes of following the signal coordinates sent by Miriallia (the Strike's receiver would actively ping whichever ship was using an SOS signal, effectively ruining the element of surprise, thus it was turned off) and had finally found a ship that looked to be intact enough to do anything useful. It was also being guarded by two GINNs.

"I think we found our target." Mu muttered upon seeing the two GINNs. He unhooked the spare battery (as he saw it) and placed a signal flare on it.

The GINNs lifted their machine guns to face the new threats, before one of them suddenly had his head replaced by a sword. The second GINN fired a few shots at the Strike in retaliation (since the Strike threw its oversized sword at the first GINN and was effectively weapon-less) and turned as a missile from the Zero caught its attention.

Mu then almost gasped in surprise as the GINN suddenly rocketed upwards while firing its forward-facing thrusters, causing it to fly over the missile while flipping around to face said missile. It then destroyed the missile with a burst of machine gun fire.

"Damn, looks like we have an ace on our hands." Mu seethed, rolling out of the way of a retaliatory burst of first from the GINN he had just fired at before he had to roll once more to dodge a burst of fire from the headless GINN, which had jettisoned its head connector (which was still attached to the oversized sword) and was now fighting without its main camera. _Make that two of them._ He thought as he heard a metallic ping from one of the GINN machine gun rounds scraping his Zero.

Kira, meanwhile, was sorely missing the Aile Strike's beam rifle. He had chased down the GINN's head and retrieved his oversized sword, and had now powered it up, a beam of power acting as the cutting edge for the sword. He then charged full speed towards the second (still-whole) GINN, bringing his sword down for an overhead strike.

The whole GINN spun quickly and boosted out of the slash to deliver a roundhouse-ish kick to the Strike's side with the momentum of the spin. It then brought out a pair of knives and neatly jammed them into the Strike's arm section, causing the Phase Shift Armor to crackle and removing the arm's ability to do anything useful.

"Whoa! Damn!" Kira, though taught by the Aces of Strangereal, was still inexperienced in actual hand-to-hand combat with mobile suits, as he had nobody to teach him.

"Kid! I got your back!" Mu fired a few shots from his linear gun near the whole GINN, but it didn't budge an inch. _Figured a move like that wouldn't work on an ace. _He then had to focus his attention on the headless GINN, as it had maneuvered above him.

Mu fired a grapple at a nearby piece of debris and nosed-up hard, bringing that debris into the GINN like a wrecking ball, knocking said GINN off-balance. Mu then detached his grappling hook while taking several pot shots at the headless GINN (while the GINN fired back aimlessly), reorienting himself to set up for another attack.

Kira tried to hit the GINN pinning his arm with his knee but missed, as the GINN rocketed out of the way (knives still stuck in the Strike's arm) and counterfired by spraying the Strike with a pair of machine guns.

Mu rolled and sharply pulled his Zero to bring his gun to bear on the still-whole GINN, but before he could even stabilize his threat alarm told him that the headless GINN was firing at him, forcing him to dodge out of the way again.

"Dying in a graveyard, this isn't even remotely funny!" Mu gritted his teeth, and released his Gunbarrels.

He aimed his Gunbarrels at both GINNs and fired away while dodging the spray of fire from the headless GINN.

…

Meanwhile, on a ZAFT ship bound for the debris belt…

"Sir, we're receiving a lot of heat signatures from a location within the debris belt, it's very close to where the ship disappeared." The operator said, after spending some time listening intently to his headphones.

The captain of the ship nodded. "Acknowledged; Mr. Zala," he looked at Athrun, who fidgeted a little upon being referred to as such (he was here as a representative of the ZAFT government instead of as a military officer, thus his status as the son of a top official trumped his rank). "Do you think Miss Clyne is being attacked?"

_I don't think a civilian ship could defend itself against an enemy attack for this long. _Athrun mused. "Let's hope not, but it's best to not rely on just hope; how quickly can the ship get to that location?"

"It's fairly deep within the debris belt, and we can't dive in too quickly." The captain said.

Athrun grimaced. "Ok; then I'll deploy in the GINN; head to that location at top speed."

"Roger. And, Athrun," The captain was a family friend, after all. "Don't get in over your head."

Athrun smiled slightly. "I won't."

…

"Son of a…he fights just like those guys!" Mu snarled as he pulled another high-G maneuver to dodge a spray of fire from the headless GINN that was getting more and more accurate. "Are you alright there, kid?!" Mu yelled over the warning alarms telling him that his Vernier thrusters were starting to overheat from the strain.

"Yeah!" Kira felt his body shake from yet another kick from the GINN he was up against. "These guys are really good!"

_Well, no shit, kid. _Mu couldn't help but think.

Kira was a better ranged fighter: the Aces of Strangereal had taught him that much. Every hit he's gained so far on the GINN (with his head-mounted guns) was when he was fighting at range. The pilot of the unit had realized that quite early and as a result had moved into super short ranged combat, combining kicks and punches along with well-positioned dagger stabs to the Strike's joints; at this point the Strike's cockpit was blaring with warnings about joint damage despite the Phase Shift armor's protective properties.

Mu, on the other hand, was locked in a shooting duel with the Headless GINN. A lot of fire was being exchanged between the Moebius Zero and the GINN but due to maneuvering, debris, and the fact that the GINN was missing its main camera, neither side scored any serious hits.

Kira had long since abandoned the oversized sword that came with the Sword Strike, favoring the smaller but nimbler Armor Schneider knives instead. However, due to his lack of experience he simply couldn't bring them about fast enough to do any serious work.

After a few minutes of Kira getting punched and knifed in the everywhere repeatedly over and over again, he found himself face to face with the GINN's knife, held pointed at his cockpit section, while his Phase Shift Armor happily informed him of its end of operation.

Suddenly, the GINN flashed something with a light on the head.

"A truce?" Mu said, after his Zero's computer had deciphered the message. "Why would they ask for a truce? They were kicking our ass." Mu wondered, and pulled his Gunbarrels back.

"I don't think they're ZAFT units." Kira said, calming down and finally getting a good look at the units in question: The GINN still with his head attached was painted a mixed hue of black and blue, had oversized shoulders signifying increased mobility and performance, and most importantly it was missing the notable fin on the head like most GINNs. The one that had its head blown off was a normal GINN in design, but it had one of its arms colored a bright red, almost as if it was a replacement arm from a different piece.

"Well, it's good to know that we're not going to die out here." Mu said dryly.

…

Once the two pilots had docked with the ship (parked next to it and gotten out) they went inside the ship, which was surprisingly well furnished and in pretty good condition, damage aside. Good enough condition for the two of them to remove their helmets while inside.

"Ah! You two must be the newcomers. I hope my friends didn't give you too much trouble." A girl's voice greeted them once they got into a room in the center of the ship.

She had long, flowy pink hair, a white dress, a very pleasant expression, and a small bundle of pink annoyance bouncing around her heels.

"HELLO! HELLO!" It said, flapping its ears wildly while half bouncing and half floating around.

"Hello, uh, and you are…" Mu said hesitantly.

"Lacus Clyne. Nice to meet you, sir." The girl said with a deep bow.

"Clyne…?! So you're Sigil Clyne's daughter?" Mu was shocked.

"Do you know my father?" Lacus asked with a very pleasant expression on her face.

"Ah, well, not exactly." Mu scratched his head. _The girl's not very attuned to the politics side of things, I see._

"Uh, Mu, who's Sigil Clyne?" Kira asked.

"One of the big brass in ZAFT, and one of the more moderate ones." Said someone behind him.

"Ah! Mr. Mercenary, I hope you weren't injured." Lacus said, upon seeing who it was behind them.

Mu wheeled around to see the man that had almost singlehandedly killed both of them. The man he thought Lacus was referring to had unkempt black hair, an EFA uniform (unbuttoned at the top), and large, large glasses.

"I guess that uniform makes you a deserter, huh." Mu remarked.

The man didn't answer, only gazed at Kira with an impartial expression.

"Don't mind him; he's not very friendly even on the best of days." The second man said, with short blonde hair, small crooked grin and a friendly extended hand, which Mu took. "Nice shooting back there, taking my head off with a sword like that." He said to Mu.

Mu pointed to Kira. "He's the culprit, I'm innocent."

The man's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Ah, well, your hit with the grapple was pretty good all the same."

Mu laughed. "Only because you kept stopping everything else I did; where did you learn to fly like that?"

The man's grin widened in response. "It'll take a while..."

…

"So what's a princess of ZAFT doing all the way out here?" Mu asked, after the group had made a little bit of small talk.

"I was on a memorial trip to Junius Seven, before the ship was ambushed by pirates." Lacus said. "If it wasn't for the assistance of these mercenaries here I don't know what could have happened." She said, following it up with a small bow towards the mercenaries in question.

Mystery mercenary number two waved it off. "We were paid for the contract, nothing to be surprised about."

"So who would hit a girl?" Mu mused to himself, mostly.

"Someone looking to extend the war, most likely." The second man said, scowling. "I wouldn't put it past them to assassinate a peaceful ZAFT envoy and try to blame the EFA for it."

"Well, knowing our top brass, it would be more of a kidnapping mission instead." Mu muttered, not a hint of a joke in his voice.

"What do you plan to do now?" The first mercenary suddenly asked.

"We came here looking for a distress signal, and we found it." Mu said. "So I suppose we could go back empty handed, but it wouldn't explain the battle damage."

"And we can't part with the princess either, since the job is to get her back to her daddy safe and sound." The second mercenary said. "How 'bout you guys stick around for a while, until one of our ships get here?"

"Then you get your pay and we get our alibi. Perfect!" Mu said. "Got anything to do while we're waiting?"

"I got some cards, if you're interested." The grin came out again.

Kira and Lacus, meanwhile, retreated to some plush chairs bolted to ground and started talking, with a fair amount of fumbling on Kira's part.

…

…

"Mr. Zala, we're not picking up the signs of battle anymore; be careful." Athrun heard over the communications.

"Roger." Athrun acknowledged. _Don't be dead, Lacus…!_

He then pressed his High Mobility GINN to go faster, navigating through the debris field with relative ease.

…

It wasn't very long afterwards until Athrun came across a most peculiar sight: The Strike, colored grey, a headless GINN, and the orange Moebius craft were unmoving next to a relatively intact ship bearing ZAFT markings.

_If I strike now I could destroy both of them. But what if Kira's inside the Strike right now? _He thought for a second to himself.

That second was immediately punctured by a lock warning.

Athrun hesitated for a split second, and that second was enough for him to feel his unit shake.

"Damn!" Athrun throttled his engines to full and climbed for a brief moment before rapidly and suddenly decelerating to hopefully throw off the attacker (which he still hasn't seen).

He then suddenly felt cold in his stomach, and pulled out his sword almost in reflex.

That reflex meant he suddenly heard the sound of metal on metal as his sword collided with a solid something, and he finally could see his assailant: a piece of ship debris.

Athrun gritted his teeth and forced himself to focus, and then accelerated rapidly downwards, spiraling away from the debris.

"You're decent. Only decent." He heard over the general line, and came face to face with a customized GINN aiming a pair of machine guns at him. "I assume you're here for the same reason as the EFA?"

Athrun took a calming breath while his mind worked overtime. "I'm here in search of a MIA civilian ship; if you goals are the same, then we've no reason to fight."

The GINN lowered its gun. "So be it; come to the ship."

…

…

Athrun walked into the gathering room, still seething at his performance, despite his hours of practicing.

The first thing he heard was two people saying his name in surprise, and looked up.

Kira Yamato, his childhood friend, and Lacus Clyne, his fiancée, were both looking at him with surprise and no small amount of joy.

"Kira…Lacus! What…" Athrun was a little too shocked to be happy. "Kira! What are you doing here?"

"We received a distress signal from this ship, so the two of us were sent to check it out." An EFA Officer he doesn't know said, looking very relaxed. Athrun's hand twitched to his gun holstered at his side. "Easy there, kid. We're here to save lives, not end them; I'm fine with not fighting over that." The man said.

Athrun calmed down. "Uh, right." He then turned to Lacus. "Are you ok?"

Lacus nodded, smiling. "Yes, thanks to these nice mercenaries I'm perfectly fine."

Athrun looked at the man leaning against the wall and the man sitting down with some cards in his hand, and bowed slightly. "I give you my thanks for protecting her."

The man sitting down tapped a card, watching it flip over and over in his hand. "No problem, kid; is she someone important?"

Athrun didn't answer; the question was simply too odd.

"Kid. Why do you fight?" The man leaning against the wall said. Kira pointed to himself in confusion, before noticing that the man was focused on Athrun.

"Why…to get revenge for Junius Seven!" Athrun said, a little too automatically for his own liking. Then, almost as if in justification, "the Naturals destroyed a civilian colony and killed millions of innocent people! I can't just let them get away with that!"

"But the Coordinators…no, ZAFT." Mu said, correcting himself for a moment. "Wrecked the Earth's ability to produce power and indirectly killed just as many people in response."

"If you didn't attack us that wouldn't have happened." Athrun said sharply.

"True." Mu shrugged. "Coordinators as a whole have a reason to hate Naturals, but that doesn't justify why you personally fight."

Athrun seethed. "My mother was on Junius Seven. Is that reason enough, you damned Natural?!"

"Athrun." Kira started to say, before Mu cut him off.

"Yeah, plenty. So when do you plan to stop fighting?"

"When I've avenged my mother."

"Interesting. You've killed a lot of my comrades, you know. That should give me enough reason to chase you into hell itself. And let's not forget the fact that you were also responsible for trashing a colony in response. Do you think you should die for our revenge?" Mu shrugged. "Do you think the war would end after you got your vengeance?"

Athrun opened his mouth to retort.

The second mercenary holding the cards sighed. "It's so much easier to fight when you're just doing it for the money; are we here to argue or to get the lady home?"

Mu's expression softened. "Just trying to make a point."

Athrun looked at Kira. "Why do you fight, Kira?"

Kira looked at Athrun. "To stop this war; I don't have as deep of an emotional reason as you do, Athrun," Athrun remembered that Kira's relationship with his parents were distant, at best. "But…I've seen what this war is, and I can't just turn away and hope that it will end soon."

Lacus looked at them both. "Athrun…if you fight for hatred, will you stop once your hatred is quenched?"

Athrun sighed. "I don't know. But I do know one thing. I do plan to fight."

The first mercenary rapped his knuckles against the wall, getting their attention. "Philosophical debate later, decide what you need to do now."

Athrun shook his head. "Right; There's a ZAFT ship nearby, I can take Lacus back with me."

"We've got a ship coming too, y'know, and we're getting paid to get her home safe and sound." The second mercenary said, packing up his cards.

"She's a ZAFT civilian, thus it's only right that the military recovers her." Athrun said.

"Just between all of us here…" The second man said, pretending to whisper. "Our contractor has implied that someone within ZAFT might want your princess gone."

Athrun looked shocked. "What? Why?"

"Because she's practically a poster child for peace." Mu suddenly said. Kira looked at him. "Think about it; the innocent and pure girl of a moderate ZAFT politician gets assassinated on a memorial trip to Junius Seven. A story like this is going to power the ZAFT war machine for ages!"

"As if Junius Seven wasn't enough." Athrun mumbled; Mu's story was plausible, though Athrun was drawing a blank on who would want to escalate the war further.

"Well…who would want to kill her within ZAFT, though?" Kira said, looking at Lacus, who was playing with the pink annoying thing that had demanded for her attention.

"The more extreme factions." Mu mused. "But it could also backfire horribly; if ZAFT goes on a murderous rampage and starts a genocide, they stand to lose their platform for the war immediately."

"Lastly it could have been just a pirate attack, although I don't think the ship would be in such a state if it was." Kira said, looking at the mercenaries.

"We only got here after the attack was underway; as soon as the attackers saw us they turned tail and ran." The second mercenary said with a shrug.

"In any case, it would be best if Lacus went with the mercenaries; the risk of there being a possible opposing faction aboard that ZAFT ship Athrun's with is too high." Kira mused.

"Kira…!" Athrun felt like his best friend should've taken his side.

"Athrun, I've been feeling it for a while now, but…this war is weird." Kira said hesitantly.

"Weird." Athrun deadpans.

"Yeah, as if…"

"There's someone else behind the wheels, right?" The second mercenary said. Kira nodded.

"So please be careful out there, Athrun; don't get yourself killed."

Athrun looked at his friend with a bemused expression on his face. "You do realize we're on opposite sides here, right?"

Kira shrugged. "Well, as far as I can see, ZAFT can't touch me out there, so I'll be fine. You, on the other hand…"

Athrun frowned. "This isn't like the Kira I know and don't love. You used to be so mature and gracious, what happened?"

Kira grinned. "Blame it on a demon lord trying to kill me every day in the simulators."

He didn't see the second mercenary look up upon hearing that name.

"The hell's that supposed to be?" Athrun laughed.

The two friends, for a moment, briefly forgot (or willingly ignored) the fact that they will be trying to kill each other again as soon as they go their separate ways.

…

[A few moments later]

…

"Kira…don't die on me." Athrun said as a goodbye.

"Yeah, same to you." Kira frowned.

The two friends parted ways, with Athrun leaving first to report back to his ship.

As he left, he saw a shuttle pull nearby to the stranded ship and hide itself behind a wall of debris.

"Our ride's here, we need to leave as well." The first mercenary said, standing up straight.

"Sure thing, Gai. Give me a moment." The second mercenary said, getting Kira's attention.

"You said you know a guy called "Demon Lord", right?"

"Uh, yeah." Kira said, surprised.

"Actually…" The man had a slight smile on his face. "Nevermind. I'm sure I'll meet him soon enough; stay alive out there, young man."

.

.

.

{ === Author Notes === }

It's oddly difficult to communicate the "Polite yet friendly" tone that Japanese honorifics seem to confer without resorting to honorifics.

If you guys have any tips I'm happy to listen. '~';


	5. Stage 5 - Angel

Kira refueled from the spare energy tank the Zero was dragging around, and set his course back to the Archangel.

Mu opened a communication line to the Archangel.

"This is the Archangel; Lieutenant La Flaga, is everything alright?" Miriallia asked.

"Yeah, we're fine. We found something interesting back on the ship. We'll let you guys know once we get back."

"Did you recover it?" Natarle asked despite herself.

"Nah. Too much trouble." Mu laughed, and closed the line, leaving Natarle to seethe silently on the bridge.

…

"Athrun, did you get Miss Clyne back?"

"Negative. She's going home on a different ship, though." Athrun said, a slight tone of defeat in his voice.

"What? Why?" The captain asked despite himself.

"Apparently there was an independent team sent by her father to find her; I think they should report the good news." Athrun said, and then felt a minor tremor in his unit. _Hope the engines stay alive. _He thought idly.

…

…

"Now, Mu La Flaga." Natarle said, all semblance of respecting rank forgotten. "Explain."

Kira gave him a look that plainly said "You're on your own."

"We found someone interesting aboard the ship from ZAFT. That certain someone happened to be the child of a high-ranking ZAFT official; we met with" Mu hesitated for a brief moment "him and the mercenaries hired to guard him, and then we let him go home." He emphasized the end of his story with a flourish of his arms. "Easy as that."

"You could've recovered him onto our ship, Lieutenant…Commander, La Flaga." Natarle had reeled herself back from the brink of extreme anger just in the nick of time.

"Sounds like you wanted to take a hostage." Talisman said lightly, looking at a remarkable spot on the wall. Natarle glared at him.

"I believe that an EFA ship would be better equipped for caring for a civilian than a mercenary one." She said stiffly.

"Right." Cipher had the barest hint of a disbelieving chuckle in his voice. "What's done is done; the two of you should get some rest, we're going to rendezvous with the 8th fleet in a few days."

"Yeah! Finally, no more sitting on pins and needles." Mu said with a fist-pump. "What's the status on the ZAFT followers we got?"

"They don't seem to be pursuing us with the same determination as before." Natarle was unhappy that her opinion was just tossed aside, but she took it in stride all the same. "However, the 8th fleet has reported that a ZAFT fleet is just within their detection radius, so they're expecting the worst."

"And that's why you told us to rest." Mu sighed, his previous happiness replaced by an exaggerated sadness. "Why don't we get a break?"

Cipher grinned. "You do. It starts now and ends tomorrow."

…

…

"Athrun, Sigil Clyne sends his thanks for your efforts to save his daughter." Rau Le Cruset said, after Athrun had debriefed him on the situation back in the debris belt. "It would have been better had you escorted her home personally, you know."

Athrun nodded. "I am expected to be in the front lines, after all; I cannot, in good conscience, escort a lady home and immediately go to slaughter others."

"How noble of you." Rau smirked slightly. "What else did you find in the debris belt?"

Athrun took a deep breath. "If it isn't much trouble, I would like you, sir, to oversee the training of the Cruset team.

Rau Le Cruset blinked in surprise. "Really? Is the data not enough?"

Athrun grimaced. "As I have experienced…no, sir."

Rau smiled. "Ok. I'll be there shortly."

…

…

[Next day]

…

…

The Archangel, a lone, bright white ship (with red and blue markings and unusual design) floated inside a nest of ships that look nothing like it, outlining it as a bright target telling everyone who to shoot once the shooting starts.

"Archangel, welcome to the 8th fleet." A man said, saluting Lieutenant Commander Murrue Ramius over the main screen.

"It's an honor, sir." Murrue saluted back, before blinking in surprise as the picture was replaced by one of a man in a suit trying to squeeze himself through the camera.

"Where's my baby girl?!" He demanded.

Murrue had a sort of a frowny smile on her face, as if to say "oh dear."

Flay Allster rushed aboard the bridge. "Daddy!"

Cipher tuned out their happy family reunion banter. "What happens now?" He asked Blaze.

Blaze stared at the picture of the ZAFT fleet that they had requested for. "Now? We pray ZAFT loses their balls and leaves us alone for two weeks."

…

…

Rau Le Cruset had coordinated strategies with the fleet commander of the 17th fleet, which was tasked to tail the 8th fleet and make sure it wasn't going anywhere. Prior to the joining of the Archangel into the 8th fleet there wasn't much action between the two apart from some sporadic trading of long distance fire.

The 17th Fleet commander, incidentally, had received an order from ZAFT high command to sink the 8th fleet. Being a man who has seen the video Cruset made and recognizing the hints behind it, he was glad of any support he could get against the so-called Demonic Moebius crafts.

Rau, on the other hand, was told to ignore the 8th fleet and focus entirely on sinking the Archangel, and wasted no energy pretending to care about the maneuvers of the allied ZAFT fleet in his plans.

…

…

…

Murdoch watched the new crafts get loaded unto the Archangel with no small amount of glee.

"What are those things?" Sai, who was assisting Kira with something on the Strike, asked.

"FX-550 Skygrasper. The next-gen answer in air-to-air combat. They pack missiles, guns, beams, and hardpoints for the Strike packs." Murdoch looked like he was about to cry manly, manly tears.

_I don't think any Earth Alliance fighter is a match against ZAFT mobile suits, though. _Sai thought.

Ribbon was watching from his perch on the topmost levels of the hangar, regarding the Skygraspers with no small amount of distain.

"What do you think about these new crafts?" He heard Mu ask behind him.

"Not flying it." Ribbon deadpans; the fighters reminded him of a Mig-21 with large engines taped to the wing tips, and he wasn't sure if they would fly with the mobility needed for air to air supremacy combat.

"What? Not to your taste?" Mu laughed. He personally was looking forward to flying in one.

"It looks…well, it looks like it could be outmaneuvered by a Foxhound." Ribbon grumbled. Mu wasn't sure what a Foxhound is but he guessed from Ribbon's tone that it was not a good thing.

"Well, give it a chance once we get into the atmosphere." He said, and then gestured to a dozen or so fighters being moved into their hangar spots. "You can always fly those things."

"Those things" Mu was referring to were F-7D Spearhead fighters; larger wings, nose-mounted control surfaces, and a large, boxy body. Spearheads were the predecessors to the FX-550 Skygraspers that Murdoch was salivating over. The two crafts shared the ability to perform Vertical take-Off and Landing (VTOL) maneuvers, and Ribbon was personally looking forward to flying the Spearheads, even if they lacked the beam munitions mounted on the top of the craft.

"I'm just not sure if that Skygrasper can turn at all." Ribbon sighed.

Mu shrugged. "Fly hard, shoot straight." He then turned to see Murdoch walking over to them with a huge grin on his face.

"Hey, Ribbon! I'm guessing the four of you'll be flying the Spearheads?" He said. Ribbon nodded. "Wonderful!" Murdoch grinned. "Got any customization ideas you want us to try out?"

Mu looked at Ribbon's devious smile, and then looked at the Spearheads, and then briefly wondered if the Earth Federation's mobile suit will never get off the ground because of these four plane-happy pilots.

…

…

The Fleet captain of the EFA's 8th fleet, a certain Rear Admiral Lewis Halberton, looked at a display of the ZAFT fleet tailing them with worry.

"Sir, do you think they'll try an attack?" One of the bridge operators asked despite herself.

Halberton sighed slightly, "Were I in their position, I would. How long until we reach optimal insertion point over JOSH-A?" JOSH-A (Pronounce Joshua) is the Earth Alliance Headquarters, and the final destination of the Archangel.

"About four hours, sir."

_So they'll attack once we start the drop. _Halberton thought. "Good."

…

…

Blaze looked up as he heard Miriallia over the Archangel's speakers.

"All pilots are hereby ordered to stand by for launch. Repeat, all pilots are hereby ordered to stand by for launch…"

"Stand by? Are we getting attacked?" Talisman wondered.

"A ship is weakest when it's leaving orbit and heading into the Earth." Kira said by ways of an explanation; he had already changed into his pilot suit a little while ago, and was talking to Tolle, who was also in a pilot suit.

"Tolle." Talisman started. Tolle shook his head.

"I'm a pilot too." Upon request, the Archangel received another Moebius craft for Tolle to use from the 8th fleet.

"Does…she know about this?" Talisman asked hesitantly.

Tolle didn't answer, but paled just a tiny bit.

"Tolle." Blaze looked at the young man in the eyes. "If we get a launch order, what do you plan to do?"

Tolle stared back at him. "Fly hard, shoot straight, and stay away from a knife fight."

Blaze nodded. "You'll do fine then, kid." He briefly wondered where Tolle learned that last euphemism.

…

[Fifteen minutes until point of descent]

…

"All Archangel units are hereby cleared to launch; your orders are to protect the ship." Blaze heard over the communications.

"You heard the lady. All units stay near the Archangel until further orders." He said as his Moebius was catapulted into space.

"Razgriz two, roger." Cipher.

"Razgriz three, roger." Mobius One.

"Four, got it." Talisman.

"Hawk one, all right!" Mu La Flaga, leading a trio of amateur pilots and feeling a mixture of both confidence and utter terror for them.

"Strike one, ok." Kira Yamato was supported by a pair of pilots and Tolle.

Blaze had assigned the two of them squadron callsigns, but he was doubtful that they would actually use them. After all, Kira and Mu most often supported each other first and foremost.

…

Rau Le Cruset looked at the eighth fleet, with all of its deployable units fielded, waiting for an attack that they knew was coming.

_Well, the man was never complacent. _Rau thought. "Commence!"

…

…

"Warning! Warning! Cruise missiles incoming! All ships intercept!"

The space around the Federation 8th Fleet lit up with fire in anticipation of the waves of heat signatures closing into the fleet.

"Have the picket ships move closer to the fleet! We will protect the Archangel until it makes its descent!" Halberton commanded.

"Drake 2, 7! Nelson 4, 9! Check your positions!" The operator said, addressing four ships on the outermost layer of the formation.

"This is Drake two, we've been hit by enemy fire!" The operator for the ship said, as confused as the rest of the bridge crew on where the attacks came from.

"Hell, Nelson 6, our engine took a hit!" One of the ships on the other side of the formation suddenly said.

"Are the cruise missiles getting through?!" Halberton demanded.

"No sir, scanners are showing total interceptions." The operator said.

"What the hell is hitting us?!"

…

"Looks like the fleet's getting shelled to pieces." Cipher said, watching the outermost ships in the formation take a multitude of hits.

"Do you think it's the same thing they hit Artemis with?" Blaze wondered.

…

"First rounds of cooled fire, effective." The operator for the ZAFT fleet said, watching the readout from each and every GINN in the fleet.

"Good, prepare for round two of fire." The captain said.

The cooled fire in question is a stripped-down version of the cold fire cannons attached on the ships sent to Artemis; stripped down to be fired by GINNs and produced (very quickly) en masse, and not as effective.

The ZAFT plan was to mask the gun's fire signatures with cruise missile heat signatures, fooling the sensors of the EFA ships and causing them to miss the chance to evade.

The result was pretty effective, as far as the first wave was concerned several of the ships sustained damage to key components, and many others were hit for varying damage to their structure. The only saving grace for the EFA was the distance between the two fleets: ZAFT's penchant for using cruise missiles meant that they were at a distance their gunners were not used to, and the accuracy of their guns suffered as a result.

But as the fleet captain had reasoned, any lack of accuracy can be compensated by simply having more guns.

"Second wave, away!"

…

"Hmm?" An operator on the flagship squinted his eyes as he focused on the heat sensor display. He noticed that there were small blips apart from the large blots that were cruise missiles. "Shit…ZAFT's got a new weapon! There's way more heat spikes than missiles out there!"

"Have the picket ships deploy chaff shields!" Halberton commanded; Chaff shields was just a very fancy term for metallic scrap and garbage that gets forcibly ejected outside of a ship to give it some additional cover against attacks that can't be intercepted by the anti-air weapons.

The operator watched as the large blanket of debris sparked as the incoming fire from the ZAFT fleet found a target. The fact that the cloud was much, much larger than the ships in question avoided the man's mind. "Holy shit, they must have two whole fleets here." He breathed.

…

"Second wave, not effective! They found us out!" A ZAFT operator said, watching the display.

"Damn, a little too early for my tastes. All units! Move in and engage! All ships! Move in to melee combat! Sink the Natural fleet!"

…

"They're finally starting." Mobius one said, watching the sudden explosion of light coming towards the fleet. "I won't be surprised if they're aiming for us."

"Yeah. All planes, break!" Blaze ordered, and all the units, with the exception of the Razgriz squadron, lazed about the Archangel and didn't move.

"Planes? We're in space." One of the smart-aleck rookies said, before he was blown away by a ZAFT particle cannon shot.

"Strike four is down." Blaze said, watching the explosion where that Moebius craft used to be. "When we say break, you break, for god's sake." He then looked at the incoming blanket of blips on his radar. "Razgriz, change of plans. We're going to dance with the enemy for a little bit; all other crafts cover the Archangel." He received three affirmatives in reply and one very angry Natarle.

"Blaze, that's against orders!" She shouted.

"Yeah, yeah." Blaze could care less, given the numbers they were against. "Two, with me."

The four Aces of Strangereal accelerated to the edge of the fleet line along with the rest of the Moebius units in the fleet.

In no time at all the Razgriz found the front line of the ZAFT forces.

"Lock." Blaze, for what seems to be the first time in his memory of flying a Moebius craft, used a missile against a GINN. "Fox three!" A call that was echoed by the rest of the squadron.

…

"The hell…fox?" Mu wondered. "Where'd the fox come from?"

…

"Fox three! Fox three!" Mobius one was very glad that they opted for a load out with external pylons and lots of radar guided missiles. While the briefing and experience had suggested that the missiles wouldn't be effective in a battle of this scale, with almost a hundred units participating and most of the attention focused on the ships meant that anyone who wasn't focused on the lone Moebius would inevitably be hit.

Most GINN pilots, when faced with locks coming from enemy ships, guns, missiles, crafts, and sometimes the occasional friendly gun, aren't focused.

As a result, Mobius one was fairly certain that out of all of his missiles fired at least half of them found a mark.

"Wow, this is a bigger fur ball than Comona." He muttered under his breath, after dodging a streak of bullets and firing back (and missing) in return. "Four, you with me?"

"Right behind you;" Talisman had nailed the target that Mobius One had missed. "Where're we going?"

"We're going to pay that ship a visit." He said, looking at a ZAFT cruiser that had eagerly moved into close range combat with the rest of the EFA fleet; the rest of the ZAFT fleet was a fair distance behind it.

"Roger, three."

…

"Shit, this is bad." Blaze dodged a series of streaks, puffs, and everything else the ZAFT could throw at him and the unfortunate allies that happened to be near him. "Two, I could use a little help."

"Wish I can help ya, I really do." Cipher gritted his teeth, using his thrusters as best as he could to both evade the GINNs constantly trying to cut him to pieces and to get a good vantage point to fire back. "What's with these guys?!"

His consternation is well placed: as soon as Cipher and Blaze entered the battle field an utterly insane amount of attention was focused on taking down the two of them, to the point where several other Moebius crafts were able to kill a few GINNs with minimal effort.

The GINNs engaging the two aces were quite skilled, and dedicated themselves to making sure that neither Blaze nor Cipher could help each other and could never slow down to fire.

"Damn!" Blaze detached a pylon, using the ejection force to give himself a small kick to narrowly avoid a very close burst of fire. His counter fire – a burst of Vulcan bullets – did preciously little in response. "These guys are a lot better than the guys from before."

Between the attention aimed at them and the crossfire on the battlefield the two aces had a very limited amount of maneuverability. However, even with the limited mobility they were able to avoid taking a direct hit from any of the attacks, a feat not repeated by their EFA allies, who were, to put it politely, dying all over the place.

…

"Allied casualties at 30 percent." Halberton heard. "The Archangel will begin its descent in ten minutes."

…

"Captain! I, uh, request permission to join the battle!" Kira said, looking at the field of explosions and exchanged fire before him.

"Kira, you know what you have to do." Murrue said gently but firmly.

"I do, but…" Kira gritted his teeth. "I can't just sit here and watch people die!"

"I feel for ya, kid." Mu said, "But in a fight like that you're going to end up killing some ZAFT soldiers even if you don't want to. Are you prepared to do that?"

"Yes, I am." Kira said after a moment of deliberation.

"Very well." Murrue said, raising a hand to forestall Natarle's complaint. "Come back before we start the drop, alright?"

"Right!" Kira said, raising his engine output to maximum.

…

"What do we do?" Tolle asked in a flat tone.

"He kind of abandoned you, didn't he?" Mu chuckled. "Strike team, hold your positions; he can handle himself, you can't."

"Damn. Fine." Tolle's desire to get into battle was not shared by his squadmates.

…

"We're coming up to the ship, three." Talisman jinked hard out of the way of an incoming GINN's fire, returning the favor with a spray of Vulcan. "I'm also running dry out here."

"Yeah; we're going to light it up and then go home to tank." Mobius One acknowledged; it took extra energy to dodge incoming fire while flying at the ship in a battle of this scale, especially to dodge the shots that were flying in their general direction, but the end result was getting bigger and bigger on his screen.

…

"Two enemy Mobile Armor in front!" The unfortunate ZAFT ship officer said, having noticed them just now.

"Evasive maneuvers!" The captain ordered.

"There's not enough time!" The helmsman replied, instead of doing his job of trying to dodge.

…

"Guns!" Mobius One said, opening fire with all of his Vulcan gun ports, raking the top of the ship, hitting the bridge, catapult, and many exposed gun ports.

"Firing!" Talisman aligned himself to the center of the ship, facing the hangar entrance, and poured his ammunition into the ship.

The two fighters zipped away from the ship as it shook with several explosions on the inside.

"I guess we hit a sweet spot." Mobius One murmured, before turning his unit around. "Razgriz leader, you guys ok?"

"We're a lot of things, ok isn't one of them." Blaze shouted with his voice devoid of any panic.

"Yeah, nice to see you guys contributing over there!" Cipher laughed, having taken a split second advantage to maneuver and strafe a GINN that was gunning for Blaze.

"Hey, we killed a ship while you guys were screwing round." Mobius One said lightly, accelerating towards the other two aces at full speed.

The GINN pilots, for their part, had pride on being (at some level) veterans of the war, and weren't about to let the rookies attacking Artemis show them up. They had, as far as they were concerned, put the "Super Moebius" enemies on the run and were chasing them down to the best of their ability.

"C'mon, c'mon, just stay still, you damned fly…!" One of the pilots said, trying to get a lock on the large-engine Moebius dancing wildly in front of him.

"Captain! We two got more incoming!" One of his wingmen said, glancing down on his radar and seeing two targets approach very, very fast.

"Oy, Ribbon, are you sure you should be going at that speed?" Blaze asked, a little worried; if Mobius One decided to enter the battle at the speed he was going, by the time he could turn around he would be out of the battle area and probably would burn up in the atmosphere.

"Not a problem." Mobius One said.

"Holy shit this guy's stupid." The captain of the ZAFT squadron voiced the thoughts of his entire squadron as he watched the newcomer Moebius zip into the battlefield.

Mobius One sped almost directly towards the lead GINN unit, and deployed both of his grapples.

They connected with two GINN units.

"What the hell-" The captain of the GINN squad uttered before he felt his unit blare a warning that it was being towed against its will. He then engaged his engine at full power to counteract this idiot with a string, as his mind put it.

Mobius One's craft momentum, however, was too great and the two GINNs he latched onto were forcibly moved. Moreover, because the GINN captain had engaged his engines a lot earlier than his wingman, he accelerated forward…and ran right into his wingman.

Mobius One turned a full 180 degrees around and peppered the GINNs with Vulcan and Linear gun fire, silencing the two unit's haphazard self-defense fire. He watched with some satisfaction as Blaze took the momentary lull in fire to strike the GINN collision with his linear gun.

"Man, you're insane." Blaze said to Mobius One, looking at the two dead GINNs (he had hit them both on the engines).

"It got the job done." Mobius One replied, flying back into formation.

"No kidding. Razgriz, we're going back." Blaze looked at his Heads Up Display: apart from the energy meter demanding to be replaced, there was a multitude of warnings, almost all of which were structural failure messages due to a combination of grazing hits to his units and the unit protesting against his haphazard evasive flying.

"Roger that." Cipher said lightly, after capitalizing on the shock of the GINN squadrons to damage some other units before the rest lost their nerve and backed off.

"Razgriz to Archangel, we're returning, we need to tank."

…

"Tank? I guess they're out of energy." Murrue said to herself. "Ok, Razgriz. Do you plan to deploy again after you're refueled?"

"Most likely yes." Talisman said, looking at the radar display: the overwhelming number of red blips was a bit worrying, especially their progressively smaller distance towards the blip that was the Archangel.

…

"As I thought, they're out of fuel." Rau said to himself. He had, upon discussion with the rest of the Artemis assault squadron, realized that the oversized engines installed on the Ace Moebius units would require more energy to both keep it running and to compensate for maneuvers. He didn't anticipate them to run dry so quickly, though. "Well, it's a bit early, but…Cruset team! We're entering the battle!"

…

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit." Halberton's operator muttered. "More enemy units incoming! Including signatures from the stolen G weapons!"

…

The Strike Gundam, meanwhile, was engaged with the first ZAFT fleet. The presence of its Phase Shift Armor meant Kira could take less time to evade and take more time to fire, shooting down the GINNs with near-engine hits (causing several of them to explode worryingly, but he pushed those thoughts out of his mind for now).

"Damn, what's with these numbers?!" He complained to nobody in particular, suddenly accelerating forward while twisting fast, causing the GINN aiming for him with a charging sword attack to miss and run straight into the Strike's beam saber. "Miriallia, how's the Archangel doing?"

"We're-ah!" Miriallia flinched as a missile exploded near the Archangel. "We're taking fire, but the ship is ok. Stay focused and don't get hurt out there!"

Kira spared a moment and looked back: the 8th fleet has suffered enough damage to cripple its blanket of anti-air fire, letting the occasional missile through to the Archangel, which was shooting most of them down as well as it could. The Rookie Mobius pilots were also helping, spreading out above and below the ship and firing at the missiles, though many of their shots strayed very close to the ship.

"Damn. Mu!"

"I'm doing all I can, kid!" Mu recovered his Gunbarrels to let them recharge. "What's the 8th fleet doing!?"

_Dying. _Thought the four Aces at the same time.

…

"Archangel, point of descent at six minutes!"

…

"Incoming!" Sai said. "Evade!"

The ship's helmsman didn't bother questioning it, and tried to maneuver the ship away from a shot coming straight to its back.

The Ship the rumbled as it took the hit. "We're hit! Light damage!" Sai let out a sigh of relief.

"Counter fire!" Murrue ordered, and the Archangel fired a few missiles behind it.

The missiles were intercepted, to nobody's surprise.

"Enemy sighted, it's the Buster!"

"Damn." Murrue bit her lip. "Have the Strike return immediately!"

…

"The Strike is on the move. Nicol! Stop him!"

The Strike flew towards the Archangel and swerved out of the way of a beam rifle shot and returned a pinpoint precise counter-shot while dodging.

"Jeez, he's even better than before." Nicol said, moving in for close range battle. "Athrun, Yzak, I'll need your help for this."

"Ok, Nicol." Athrun's Aegis had received a new beam rifle that was, to put it politely, taped together from spare parts based on ZAFT's current efforts of constructing beam weapons, and the destroyed beam rifle that the Aegis had.

"Got it." Yzak, through his training, had become more "professional", as anyone watching his piloting had commented. He piloted a white High Mobility GINN armed with the Aegis's undamaged arm beam saber (The Aegis had its leg ones put onto the arm slots).

"Alright, go!" Nicol fired a Lancer Dart at the Strike, who dodged it and returned fire with lightning speed. "I need to remember that he does that." Nicol said to himself, shaking his head.

"Kira." Athrun murmured, and charged into melee range.

"Athrun." Kira backpedaled as hard as he could with his engines while not turning around and fired at the charging Aegis, causing the Aegis to pull away from the charge while dodging the terrifyingly accurate shots.

"I got you!" Yzak roared, having charged straight underneath the Strike and was zooming straight up with its physical sword.

"Damn!" Kira maneuvered to point his beam rifle downwards to intercept, and then immediately had to rocket upwards to avoid a spray of fire from the Blitz and Aegis. Kira had half a mind to counter fire, but the white-painted GINN with oversized thrusters was still bearing down on him, and he had to draw his sword.

Kira then felt a clash as two beam sabers met, and then felt the G-force as the unit kicked him on the side of the body.

Kira gritted his teeth and accelerated towards Yzak's GINN at maximum thrust, ramming into it with his shield and dazing Yzak.

"I got your back!" Nicol fired the Glepnir (his rocket-propelled claw on a wire) at the Strike, grabbing its leg. Nicol pulled and the Strike came down a little.

Kira raised his engine output to counteract the force of the pull, before something clicked in his head and he pointed his rifle along the wire and fired quickly without bothering to aim.

"What's with this guy?!" Nicol nearly swore as he had to pull an evasive maneuver while reeling himself into the Strike for a very odd charging attack.

"Dammit!" Kira couldn't maneuver his unit to cut the line; the Strike wasn't built to be that flexible.

He looked up and saw the Beam Saber from Yzak approach his face, and made a split second decision.

Kira threw the shield as hard as he could at Yzak's unit, forcing him to block with the saber and knocking the GINN off balance. Kira then holstered his Beam rifle and drew his second beam saber, wielding it in his left hand.

Nicol charged in with the Blitz's beam saber out for a stabbing attack, letting the Glepnir's line slack a little.

Kira reoriented himself to face the Blitz and charged right back.

The Blitz's saber struck the Strike on the shoulder, while the Strike cut away the Blitz's left arm at the elbow, releasing the Glepnir and causing its grip to loosen.

Kira accelerated down and then cut the grapple line from of his leg with his left hand saber, before feeling his unit shake yet again from a flying kick aimed at his back from Yzak's GINN.

Kira gritted his teeth; he knew when he was outmatched, and the ZAFT pilots had way more experience in close range combat than he did. Thus, he turned around and tried to run back towards the Archangel at full speed.

"Dammit. To all local ZAFT units! Take down that EFA mobile suit!" Nicol roared over a general channel, not caring if the enemy got the message as well.

…

"Oh hell; why the hell did they send him without a wingman? What's our status?!" Blaze shouted at Murdoch after hearing Nicol's message over his radio.

"Your linear guns are good to go and you have half energy!" Murdoch shouted back.

"Good enough! Clear out! Razgriz, emergency launch!" Blaze rocketed out of the hangar almost immediately after the crew was clear of the engines. The three other fighters followed suit.

"Blaze, we're not in a good condition here." Cipher warned; their engines had taken damage from both heat and ZAFT fire.

"I know, but we can't let Kira handle this alone." Blaze said. "All Archangel units! Cover the Strike!"

As soon as he cleared the Archangel, he nosed toward the Strike heading back and kicked his acceleration to maximum.

…

"Oh no you don't!" Dearka said from his sniping position, firing shot after shot into the projected flight path of the Strangereal Aces.

…

"God that's annoying." Mobius One remarked as he lazily dodged a sniper shot.

…

"Kira, we're coming, hold on!" Kira heard over his radio as he nearly crashed into a GINN hell-bent on stopping him. He heard a sound and looked down on his HUD to see that the GINN had taken a piece of his wing.

Which didn't bother him, as he's in space.

What did bother him was the near constant barrage of machine gun that he was getting, from almost every side streams of bullets flew at his position, forcing him to use progressively wilder maneuvers to avoid taking hits while watching his Phase Shift Armor slowly whittle down his energy with every successive hit.

"Gah!" Kira stopped dodging for a moment and felt another shock as a GINN crashed into him from behind. His HUD now politely warned him that his back engine had taken damage and was going to be shut down for damage control purposes. "Oh hell, not now…!" Kira said, accessing the OS as fast as he could to do a manual override.

"He's stopped…! Finish him off!" Nicol said, his adrenaline getting to him a little.

"You're mine, you bastard!" Yzak roared with his beam saber extended for a slashing attack.

"Got it!" Kira's main engines came back online and he rocketed downwards to avoid Yzak's slash. Kira then felt yet another shake as he was hit by the GINN that he just dodged: Yzak had made a very fast high-G turn and emptied his missile tubes into the Strike.

"I'm not done yet!" Yzak charged downwards despite his confusion from the g-forces with his beam saber extended, pointed towards the Strike's cockpit.

Kira kicked his engines into as high of an output as he was willing to risk and spun with his beam saber outstretched.

The two sabers met and Kira's momentum allowed him to knock the GINN's arm away. The rest of the GINN, however, was still moving straight (or nearly so) and crashed into the Strike.

"Yzak! Move!" Yzak heard someone tell him, but he was still a little too dizzy to tell who. Regardless of the source he pushed the Strike away with his unit's arms while trying to clear his head by shaking it.

Nicol locked onto the Strike with his rifle sight, letting the Strike know that it was being targeted.

Kira knew that he was being targeted, but his engines had taken enough, and replied with a cough.

"Kid!" Blaze's Moebius craft screamed into the battle area, spraying Vulcan fire at the Blitz and causing it to alter its aim just slightly and miss the Strike's cockpit, instead hitting the winglets of the Aile pack on its back. "Get out of there, now! We're almost out of time!"

Kira spared a moment to look down and noted that he was almost out of power. "R-right!" He detached the Aile pack and picked it up with his unit's hands. He then put full power into the Strike's built in thrusters and aimed himself at the Archangel.

"All units, cover Strike One's retreat!" Blaze roared, latching onto a GINN with his grapple to slow himself down faster and to circle back to point at the Blitz.

"Shit, they're here!" Nicol quickly circled to a private communication channel among the Cruset team members. "Yzak, get back and support Dearka! Dearka will snipe from a distance, Athrun, get their attention and don't get hit!" Three affirmatives met his orders, and he then changed to a common ZAFT band. "All units at my location, focus fire on the modified Mobius crafts! Don't lose track of each other's positions!"

"Who the hell are you-" One ZAFT pilot started to say before Rau Le Cruset cut him off.

"This is Cruset, affirmative." When Rau Le Cruset decided to follow orders, the rest of the pilots knew better than to question the authority of the person issuing the order.

"Holy-" Blaze cut his grapple and jinked hard to avoid the torrent of machine gun fire. "Razgriz, keep your guard up! They got their eyes on us!"

"We kind of figured that out already!" Mobius One gritted his teeth, jinking to avoid fire while trying to line up a shot on the GINNs shooting at Blaze, and not having much luck as the GINNs doing the shooting would switch to him the instant he turned to aim (and end up needing to fly straight).

Cipher streaked high over the battlefield while being followed by a swarm of missiles. "Where's the rest of the fleet?!" He said as he purged his heat radiator into the missiles, detonating enough of them for him to turn around to shoot down the rest.

"They're still covering the Archangel!" Talisman said, neglecting to mention the fact that there was a worrying amount of debris from the dead EFA ships around them.

"Damn. How long until Archangel's descent?" Blaze asked, taking a wild shot at a GINN aiming for Cipher.

…

"Archangel's descent in one hundred seconds." Miriallia said. "Beginning final descent preparations; all units, please return."

"Strike to Archangel, I'm coming back."

"Blaze to Archangel, requesting fire support; we can't disengage with these guys on our tails!"

Murrue looked around, and noted the condition of the 8th fleet, reduced to a fraction of the numbers it used to have. "Admiral, please retreat from the combat area; we'll make the descent on our own." She said as the Archangel's Moebius squadrons fired willy-nilly towards the combat area occupied by the Razgriz squadron.

"I'm sorry, Ramius. Looks like we couldn't hold out until the end." Halberton said, sighing. "All 8th fleet ships, retreat from the combat area while suppressing all ZAFT forces around the Archangel!"

Murrue then issued another order. "Use the Valiants, Corinth, anything! Cover the Razgriz!"

…

With the lights coming from the engines of cruise missiles and GINNs aimed at the Archangel, it wouldn't have been too much of an exaggeration to say that it was like a bright lamp being swarmed by moths.

And the moths were fireproof.

…

In almost no time at all, the Archangel began to take damage.

"Gottfried emplacement one, hit! Barrels offline!"

"Igellstung emplacements two, five, eight, hit! All offline!"

"Continue firing! Lay down a blanket above us, don't worry about hitting anything!" Natarle ordered, as the Archangel's armor continued to be pummeled by machine gun fire and the occasional missile that manages to get through.

…

"This ship's like a goddamn porcupine." A ZAFT pilot said, watching the hail of fire coming back toward them.

"Yeah. Better than dealing with those stupidly good Moebius units back there though." His wingman said, aiming at a normal Moebius that was hanging around the Archangel and picking it off with his recoilless rifle.

…

"Strike three, hit!" Miriallia said, her heart beating again after seeing a Moebius take a direct hit to its cockpit, while her brain berated her for being relieved that someone other than Tolle had died.

"Damn!" Tolle sighted a GINN, and fired away as fast as he could. "Get the hell away from us, you damned ZAFT bastards!"

…

"Blaze, the Archangel's in trouble." Mobius One said, finally getting some breathing room.

Once it became clear that every ZAFT unit in the region was gunning exclusively for the Strangereal Aces, they started flying differently, they started to fight differently.

With every maneuver, with every shot, a GINN either lost a body part or exploded entirely. Every time a minute gap appeared in the hail of bullets that surrounded the four aces, it would be exploited for all its worth and the unfortunate soul that decided to reload would find itself suddenly and violently ripped from its host.

Soon enough, the withering fire around them lessened and they had more maneuver room.

And once they had gotten that maneuver room, even more ZAFT died.

…

"What do we do now, Blaze?" Cipher said, looking at his energy readout. "I'm bone dry here."

"Makes all of us." Talisman sighed, sighting a GINN that didn't retreat far enough before reloading and punching a hole in the cockpit. "Only got my Vulcans left."

"I don't think we have enough left to dock." Cipher said. "We go too fast we overshoot and burn up in the atmosphere, we go too slow and we'll get shot to pieces."

"Damned if we do, damned if we don't." Blaze sighed. "This is Razgriz one to Archangel, what's your situation?"

"We're proceeding with the descent, return to the ship, Blaze." Miriallia replied.

"That might be a bit tough. Can you patch us to Murdoch?"

"Huh, uh…sure, hold on a second."

…

"Murdoch here. You're not gonna die out there, are ya, ace?"

"Nah, but we do need a little help; got any ideas?"

"You can latch onto the Archangel with your grapples during the descent; it won't be pretty but at least you'll make the descent with us. Or you could go with the 8th fleet; not much in terms of options here."

"Thought as much; alright, Razgriz, you heard the man. We're going to chain ourselves to the angel."

…

"They're running, sir. Should we pursue them?" Nicol said, finally letting out a breath he didn't realize he was holding: even in a suit with immunity against bullets, he felt as if with every GINN that was shot down he would've been next.

"I think we're the ones who'll be in trouble if it happens; they're not going to reach the legged ship in time anyways." Athrun said, trying hard to ignore how cold his back felt, pressed against his pilot suit drenched with sweat. "We've won, though."

"Right." Yzak's chuckle was without any mirth. "Some victory, Athrun." His High Mobility GINN was smoking in several locations, and one particular hole near his cockpit reminded him just how much he missed the near perfect defense that Phase Shift armor provided.

"I know. Damn." Athrun looked around at the GINN pieces floating around them. Somewhere during their planning, somewhere during their concerted assault on the Aces they had completely forgotten the fact that the pilots they were trying to kill were accurate enough to aim for nonfatal hits.

Faced with overwhelming odds on behalf of the ZAFT attack plan, the Aces of Strangereal had collectively decided to stop toying with the ZAFT and show them just how a real war was fought.

"All units, return to the ship; we've done more than enough here." Rau Le Cruset said, berating himself for having forgotten that the ones they fought against were trying to avoid killing, instead of simply being unable to.

Of the 32 units deployed dedicated to killing the Razgriz, 9 units made it home.

…

Tolle watched as another Mobius craft died next to him. "Uh, Murrue! What do we do now?"

Murrue wanted to tell the boy that it was a lucky shot; their ZAFT pursuers were now far away due to their desire to remain unburnt by the atmosphere. "You've done well. All crafts return to hangars, we're entering the final descent phase."

"Right; I'll help." Kira deployed with the Strike and no packs to help retrieve the Mobius crafts.

Nobody on the ship had the illusion that amateur pilots would make the trip back to the hangar during conditions as punishing as an atmospheric entry, and the amateurs themselves weren't eager to rush to their deaths; not many heroes heroically failed a docking maneuver, after all.

"What's going to happen to the Razgriz?" Tolle asked once his craft was secured in its anchors; all pilots were ordered to stand by in their cockpits until the descent had completed.

"Hopefully they'll do something insane and survive." Miriallia said, her adrenaline overwhelming her common sense, as she watched the metallic screen shutters close the bridge off from the rigors of reentry.

…

"Oy, Blaze. Look over there." Mobius One said.

Blaze looked: A ZAFT cruiser, trailing a lot of smoke, was following the Archangel down on its descent.

"That guy has a death wish." Blaze deadpanned. "Blaze to Archangel, you have a tail."

"Our weapons are locked down right now." Natarle said, feeling fear anew in her chest.

"Shit." Blaze felt his mind race for a moment, before it settled on an unpleasant solution.

"Razgriz to Archangel, we'll take care of it."

"What? Blaze, you're not going to make it back in time!" Murrue said. The ZAFT ship was descending at a much faster rate than the Archangel, but it had its guns trained on its prey, ready to fire…once it cleared some condition to do so.

"We'll meet you once we've touched down. Blaze, out."

"Wai-"

"Man, this sucks." Cipher laughed.

"You said it." Talisman chuckled; none of them had the fuel left to get back into orbit, and if they chased down the ZAFT cruiser and killed it they would end up lower than the Archangel, and would burn up in orbit even if they tried to latch onto it.

"Gentlemen, it's been an honor to fly with you in the wide open space." Mobius One said, and then grinned. "Now let's bag ourselves a ship and fly in the blue skies."

"Damn straight." Blaze was grinning as well. "Blaze, Wardog one, engaging!"

"Galm one. You guys are nuts. Engaging!"

"Garuda one. I concur. Engaging!"

"Mobius one. Engage!"

…

Miriallia looked at the dead control panel in front of her; the ship was no longer receiving communications from the outside since the radios were retrieved and covered. She couldn't do anything more than pray that both the ship and the four aces made it.

...

Kira looked down at his hands still tightly wrapped around the Strike's controls, his (would-be) guilt ringing loud in his ears, knowing full well that if the four of them died it would be his fault. That if he was a better pilot they would not have needed to deploy with reduced fuel.

"Kid, you ok there?" Mu asked over the radio.

Kira didn't answer.

Mu sighed. "Kid…"

Murdoch's voice came over the radio in his head. "Don't be so hard on yourself, kid; they're not dead yet."

Kira flinched. "How can you…"

"How do I know?" Murdoch laughed. "Because I've never seen pilots with as much skill as those guys. I daresay they make the impossible possible, y'know!"

Mu grumbled. "Geez, first they take my spot then they take my line!"

Murdoch's grin was audible and infectious. "I took your line, Mr. Flaga!" Murdoch then turned serious. "I believe in them."

As if in response, the ship rumbled.

…

"Shit, it fired." Blaze said, burning up almost every last bit of his energy to get into optimal range.

The ZAFT cruiser had just fired at the Archangel with its main cannons, scoring no direct hit but close enough to damage the heat-resistant gel that was deployed on the bottom. He then noticed that the ship's engines were still going.

"Razgriz, pour everything into those engines!" He roared.

Four craft's worth of linear guns and Vulcans complied, pouring all of their ammunition into the ship's engines, turning it into a fireball that engulfed the ship and turned it into a floating corpse.

"Whoa." Cipher said, his eyes widening.

"Yeah. Razgriz, we're using that thing as a heat shield! Grapples!" He then remembered that he had cut his grapple earlier. "Ah shit. I lost my grapple."

"Ha!" Cipher couldn't help it. "We got you, don't worry."

The three planes that had grapples latched themselves onto the descending corpse of the ZAFT cruiser, and then detached their linear guns.

Blaze detached his oversized engines and linear gun, right before he nearly crash-landed onto the cruiser. His hard point claws dug into the cruiser armor and secured the cockpit block as tightly as it could.

The three other fighters landed close around him and dug into the armor as well, and the extra mass of the engines helped pin Blaze's craft onto the cruiser.

…

An alarm sounded in the Archangel after a few minutes of silence.

"What's going on?!" Murrue demanded as the ship shook heavily; they then felt their center of gravity change severely.

"One of…one of our engines overheated and exploded!" Sai said in disbelief. "We got hit…?"

"Exp..how could that have happened?!" Natarle demanded, feeling as if she's going down a steep slope on a roller coaster.

"Th-the ablative gel took a hit, probably from that tail we had!" Sai shouted in reply.

"Maintain our position!" Murrue ordered, feeling very uncomfortable due to the seatbelt around her waist.

"Trying!" The helmsman said, pulling back as hard as he could, fighting against the force of gravity on the massive ship.

…

"I really hope we don't burn up in here." Cipher said to no one in particular; their radios had already short-circuited. He watched another piece of the cruiser fly off the ship. "I really, REALLY hope we don't burn up here."

…

…

Before long, the skies over the ocean saw two visitors from space: a giant fireball and a ship.

The ship was oddly built, and struggling to keep its bottom pointed towards the water.

The fireball was…well, a fireball. With pieces flying off as it slowed down to the point where it was a small fireball being followed by smaller fireballs.

…

"We're clear!" The Archangel crew breathed a collective sigh of relief as they slowed down enough to avoid burning to death instantly if their angle of attack into the atmosphere changed. The helmsman was particularly grateful, as it meant he finally won the tug of war against gravity.

The Archangel leveled out to be parallel with the ocean surface, with one of its engines bellowing out smoke…before another engine exploded and sent the ship almost spiraling nose-first into the ocean.

Fortunately, the Archangel's helmsman is an underrated badass, and he managed to stop the ship before it started its ungodly spiral and tried to pull the ship's nose up as much as possible while the air brakes on the ship deployed to try and slow it down as much as possible.

Unfortunately, as much as possible still meant a very fast, nearly 30 degree dive heading towards the ocean.

...

Blaze saw the Archangel plunge into the ocean ahead of him while trailing a lot of smoke, and was worried. But his craft demanded more immediate attention: warning alarms were going off inside the cockpit about every possible defect, from charred armor to unresponsive controls. It also didn't help that his HUD was entirely dead, having burned out from the re-entry.

"It's gonna take me a miracle to get out of this one." He muttered, before using light communication to talk with his wingmen. It was a single word.

FLY

Almost in tandem, the four Mobius crafts released their hard point locks on the cruiser (three made the release; Cipher's locks actually broke off instead) and the odd looking Mobius cloud lifted into the air, powered by momentum and slowed down by a hideous lack of an aerodynamic frame.

…

…

Miriallia rubbed her forehead; even with her pressing her head against the panel to avoid bashing her head in due from the momentum it still hurt. She then looked at the display, which was showing a cloud of four blips somewhere over their head.

"Razgriz confirmed! They're alive!" She shouted joyfully over the cacophony of warnings and alerts.

Natarle was about to remind her that they have zero reason to believe the blips were the Razgriz, and that their ship was in fact underwater when it wasn't built to be, but thought better of it.

One of the blips suddenly broke off from the other three.

…

Mobius One didn't have time to utter a curse; one of his engines decided that it finally had enough and detached itself, taking his grapple with it and causing him to go into a spin aimed at the ocean, much like the Archangel. Unlike the Archangel the Moebius's control system was totally dead due to a combination of stress and re-entry damage.

The end result was that Mobius One was fighting a battle against gravity while watching the sky and ocean mingle in front of his eyes.

…

"Uh, we might have an issue here." Kira said, watching water flow into the hangar.

"We know; the equipment's sealed and the pumps are all good, so don't worry about it." Murdoch replied, looking at the hangar entrance from his spot above the hangar floor.

"Don't worry about it, he says." Kira mutters, looking at the water accumulate around the Strike at a worrying rate.

"What's the situation?" Murrue asked over the radio.

"Hangar two's catapult system is totally dead, we'll need to dock to replace it; both hangar gates are busted, and water's coming in. Do we have permission to blow them once we're out of the water?"

"Granted."

…

The Archangel's helmsman pulled as hard as he could, hoping that the Archangel will surface after its plunge into the ocean faster than the rate of water flowing in.

Soon enough, the altitude display changed from a negative to a positive number, and he reduced power on the remaining hover thrusters, allowing the Archangel to float on the water surface.

…

Cipher spared a moment to look as one of the Archangel's hangar door exploded for no reason as he attached Blaze to his grapple.

…

Mobius One finally stopped spiraling.

Talisman fired his grapple at Mobius One's craft, latching onto it. He then pulled up as hard as he could.

Mobius One felt himself swing through the air, and struggled to maintain an angle that exposed as much of his unit's underside to the water as he could to slow himself down, before whatever's left of his speed broke the badly damaged grapple connections and sent him into the water.

Mobius One crashed into the ocean engine-first and bobbed there like a lopsided cork, until the other engines attachments gave out, and then he bobbed there like a regular cork, propped up by the engine block underneath him.

Talisman burned out the last bit of his energy (and his engine with it) and hit the water much like Mobius One, only with a sharp crunch sound as his engine's connectors to the rest of his craft broke off, scattering sparks everywhere.

Blaze's craft was more or less dropped into the ocean like a stone, where it bobbed for a moment and began to sink.

Cipher glided to a stop near the Archangel, the very picture of control (that is, if his engines weren't actually on fire before they hit water with a loud hiss).

…

Murrue opened a channel to the outside of the ship, an open-air channel. "Are you guys alright?" She asked.

The crew heard her voice ring through the air.

The pilots then heard an explosion underwater, and Blaze floated to the surface, accompanied by debris from the remains of the blast door of his now submerged Moebius.

Mobius One flashed a light message to the Archangel's bridge, after the steel shutters were retracted.

R S OK


	6. Stage 6 - Tiger of the Desert

The four Aces were fished out of the water in a short amount of time, and Blaze inwardly thanked the man that decided to give Moebius crafts paper thin armor: it made them float.

Assuming, of course, that the engine blocks were still attached to the main body.

Which was important for Ribbon especially, as his craft's cockpit entrance had jammed and refused to budge, causing a few several harrowing moments as water flowed in while the Archangel hangar crew cut a new entrance on the top of the craft.

But, at the end of the day, they were safe back in the Archangel.

…

"Total damage…nearly half of our guns are dead, and we lost two engines. The ship's almost lost all of its ability to glide, and we're on the ocean. Wonderful." Murrue sighed. "On the other hand, we're alive and kicking, so that's good. Where are we, exactly?"

"We're…on the Pacific Ocean, near the coast of Africa." Sai said, looking at a radar display. He then glanced out the window, and saw the shoreline, a fair distance away. "It's really good that we avoided landing in Africa."

"We were heading for Alaska, right? How'd we end up so far away?" Natarle wondered.

"The computer wasn't correctly calculated." The helmsman, Arnold Neuman, said. "Whoever made it failed geography."

Natarle rubbed her temples. "Of all the things that could've screwed us over it had to be a computer issue. Just our luck…Captain, what should we do next?"

Murdoch was called to the bridge earlier as he knew the ship's physical condition the best, and he responded in Murrue's place.

"The ship's not in good shape." Mu rolled his eyes. Murdoch shot him a dirty look. "Most of the aft lift engines are damaged from the re-entry heat. We won't be able to keep the ship stable if we fly and we can't fly if we want to keep the ship stable."

He scratched his head. "The two engines we lost means if we sail we're going to take a lot of water and sink as soon as something scratches us, and the guns we lost means if we sail we're going to get scratched by ZAFT, take a lot of water and then sink."

"What about the Razgriz?" Natarle asked. Murdoch's reply was a blank look.

"They just got fished out of the ocean after crashing into it from orbit, what do you think?"

…

The Razgriz, incidentally, were placed in the medical bay because it's not very often someone decides to make an atmospheric re-entry with a dead ZAFT cruiser as a heat shield.

…

"So what are our options?" Murrue asked.

"Honestly?" Murdoch replied. Murrue nods. "We need to fish for supplies; at the very least enough to get all of our lifters working."

"Where are we going to get those out here? Africa is ZAFT territory, after all." Natarle said.

"There's always the black market." Mu said with a shrug.

Natarle scowled at him.

"For the time being, Murdoch, do whatever you can to get the ship floating." Murdoch salutes and leaves the bridge.

…

[In orbit]

…

"I can't believe those guys." Athrun breathed after seeing a replay of the ZAFT cruiser falling into the atmosphere. "Did they make it?"

"God I hope not." Dearka replied. "The sooner those guys die the better."

"Well, we're just going to have to make sure." Rau Le Cruset said, walking into the lounge and returning the salutes of the two boys.

"Sir?"

"Dearka, you will accompany Yzak and continue the pursuit of the legged ship." Cruset ordered. "We need to make sure that that ship dies before it can get back into friendly lines."

Dearka frowned; continuing to fight against those pilots wasn't what he wanted, but maybe they would be easier in the sky. "Yes sir."

"And me, sir…?" Athrun ventured.

"We've received some…interesting, reports of unusual activity in the Heliopolis remains; we're being tasked to go check it out."

"Unusual? Isn't it just more of the Junkers?" Dearka muttered.

Cruset smiled. "Apparently we might have missed a few things."

…

[Back on land, a week later]

…

Miriallia was on night duty, paying the sparsest of attention to the communications display in front of her, feeling herself drifting off to sleep because it's dark and it's quiet.

She heard a knock on the wall, and jumped slightly to look and see…Tolle.

"Miri, are you still mad?" He asked sheepishly.

No response.

"Yep, still mad. I'm, uh…really sorry I didn't say anything, but…"

Miriallia sighed. "I know. We all want to protect Kira." She pointed a finger at him with the hand that her chin was resting on. "But the next time you deploy you let me know first, got it?"

Tolle nodded furiously.

The communications panel suddenly beeped, and Miriallia read the message to herself.

"What's going on?" Tolle asked, coming up to read the message.

"Beats me." Miriallia leaned back. "I don't know what this message means, but I don't think it's anything important; it doesn't follow any encryption rules the EFA uses, anyways."

"Huh, weird."

…

[Next day]

…

"Murdoch, how're we looking?"

"We're about as close to finishing as we were yesterday." Murdoch sighed. "We just don't have the parts to do the repairs; we can cannibalize some of our units to do it, but I don't think that's a smart idea."

Murrue sighed. "Yeah. Damn."

Miriallia then caught her attention. "Ma'am, earlier I received an odd message, but it didn't seem to make any sense, so…"

Murrue nodded. "Show me."

Murrue read the message, and didn't understand what it meant. "Wow, what?"

Miriallia couldn't help but slightly giggle. "I didn't quite understand it either, but I think it's a communication from someone."

"Ma'am." Murrue heard Blaze's voice at the entrance to the bridge. She stood up to see him saluting.

She salutes back. "Good to see that you're alright, Blaze."

Blaze grinned. "Takes more than a re-entry to kill me, captain; what's up?"

"We got a message from someone that doesn't make any sort of sense." Miriallia replied casually.

"Oh really?" Blaze scanned it.

Then he did a double take.

And then he read it again a third time, just to make sure it was right.

"What's…uh, what's this about?" Miriallia was a little scared of Blaze's sudden change in demeanor.

"I'm not quite sure either." Blaze said in his best fake nonchalant voice. "But it looks really familiar."

_I'll say. _Murrue thought, not tricked for a moment. "You're not as good of an actor as Cipher, Blaze; what's this message about?"

"I really don't know." Blaze raised his hands. "But I have some guesses; speaking of which, Cipher!"

"You called?" Cipher leaned stopped short of passing by the bridge.

"How did you know he was there?" Neuman wondered.

"What do you think about this?" Blaze said, gesturing the communication panel. Cipher leaned over and read it quickly.

"Someone want a piece of us?" Cipher said lightly. "How'd they know about us?"

"Think it's someone we know?" Blaze ignored Murrue's raised eyebrow entirely.

"More like it's someone that knows about us."

"What's going on?!" Murrue demanded.

"No clue." The two Aces said in unison. "But you might get another message later." Cipher added.

…

…

…

Sure enough, a few hours later they received an incoming call…from an encrypted EFA line that no one should have access to.

"Hey, guys." The voice said. It was quite friendly and fairly young.

"Who is this?" Murrue asked, as politely as she could.

"That isn't important right now." The voice said. "I saw you guys come crashing through the sky, figured you could use a little help."

"That's…quite admirable of you." Natarle's caution was palpable.

The person on the line picked it up as well. "Well, we're no friends of ZAFT, and I don't think ZAFT would willingly let one of their ships descend while on fire."

Murrue raised an eyebrow.

"In any case." The voice sounds apologetic. "We know some people who could help you with supplies that you need and a dry dock for repairs, and if you're willing to help us out with someone then we would be happy to help you back. Deal?"

Murrue sighed. "Help you how?"

Natarle was about to point out that it broke regulations for the army to broker deals with a third party, before seeing Murrue's frown and conceding, silently, that they were in no position to be picky.

"Well, we could use some more manpower. A certain tiger of the desert has been giving us trouble."

"And how do we know that this tiger won't come and hit us?" Natarle asked, before noting that Blaze had entered the bridge at some point during the conversation.

"If we raise a big enough stink, he'll be too busy to divert his forces. Africa's not exactly the most peaceful of places, y'know." ZAFT had been in control of Africa for only a few short months, and pacification processes weren't going well. Compounding the fact was that ZAFT had given Africa fairly low priority, and most of the forces that could deploy were being fielded elsewhere.

Murrue looked behind her when she heard Blaze clear his throat and give a thumbs up.

"Very well. We agree to assist." Murrue said after a brief moment.

"Great! Oh, by the way. The enemy has some way skilled pilots, so you should send only your best people." The line went dead.

Natarle narrowed her eyes. "I don't like this, Captain. They could be trying to divert our firepower, especially with a line like that."

Murrue nodded. "Yeah. So who should we send?"

"Razgriz will go; The Strike should be used to defend the ship if the stolen G-units show up." Blaze said.

"Are you sure about that?" Natarle wondered, a little snidely.

"Yeah. We can handle it." Blaze shrugged. "We're all itching to fly in a sky again, y'know?" He grinned.

…

…

…

Ribbon climbed into the cockpit of the F-7D-C Spearhead (As Murdoch called it, the "Super" Spearhead), positively giddy at the prospect of flying in the sky again.

"How do you like your craft, Ribbon?" Murdoch asked with a wide grin.

Ribbon sat back and soaked up the feeling of being in his metallic sky-blue painted aircraft, with its tail adorned with the insignia of a plane soaring through a Mobius strip. "Like I'm finally back home." He said with a satisfied smile.

"You're not home yet, Ribbon." Blaze laughed, climbing into his craft, featuring a yellow and black line running across the fuselage of the plane, and the insignia of a hunting dog. "We still got a few minutes before we cross the door."

Cipher was all grins, any pains from his injuries forgotten. His plane's wingtips were painted black, with the insignia of the hound biting its chain on the tail.

Talisman's insignia was the emblem of a bird on an otherwise unpainted craft. "It's about time. Hope we didn't forget how to fly in the sky."

The F-7D-C Spearhead had retooled engines given the maximum amount of care and attention to make sure that said engines won't burn out (again) during combat. The wings were given structural pylons for more missiles, as enemies in the sky tend to be far less capable of suddenly turning around and shooting down said missile.

Blaze wasn't quite sure how much better a plane with a week's worth of upgrading would be, but he certainly wasn't about to disparage Murdoch's hard work.

"Razgriz, deploy in five minutes." Miriallia informed them.

…

One by one, the four Spearheads climbed into the sky.

Miriallia then heard a simultaneous sigh of comfort from all four pilots.

"It's good to be back." Ribbon said.

…

Miriallia felt slightly creeped out.

…

"Come to think of it. How's the kid doing?" Blaze suddenly asked, remembering that he didn't see Kira at all for the past two days.

"Kira? He's…sulking, I suppose. He blames himself for almost killing us." Talisman replied.

"Seriously?"

"That's what Sai's saying; Kira's spent all of his time in the simulator, as far as I know." Talisman shrugged.

"Miri." Blaze said to the radio.

"Hey." Miriallia said, a little annoyed; only Tolle had the privilege for that particular nickname.

"Fix the kid for us before we come back, alright?"

"Wh-he's not a toy!" Miriallia was now a lot annoyed.

…

…

Kira had compiled data from the asteroid belt, the descent battle, and then had cranked all of the settings on the trial units to maximum. And then he hacked the simulation to give said trial units the highest possible specs that he could without breaking the simulator.

That was two days ago.

Apart from stopping for a few hours to eat and sleep he hasn't left the simulation room at all.

…

[A few hours later]

…

Blaze heard a voice over the radio. "EFA fighters, we've been expecting you. Please land as soon as you are able."

Mobius one blinked, before opening a line. "Neil? Is that you?"

The other line sat silent for a little while. "This is SkyEye, Mobius One, do you copy?"

Mobius one smiled despite himself. "Mobius One, acknowledge. Good to hear your voice, sir."

"You two know each other?" Blaze asked.

"SkyEye was my AWACS operator back there." Mobius One replied; all of them understood "back there" to be "Strangereal."

"Ah." Blaze said. "Wardog one to SkyEye, it's an honor to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine. I haven't seen you since Operation Katina, Mobius one; how've you been?"

Ribbon raised an eyebrow. "Operation Katina?"

Cipher interjected here. "Galm one to SkyEye. There's some temporal issues with us aces; we'll fill you in once we're on the ground."

…

A blonde haired girl looked at the man manning the radio, then back to the dark-skinned man standing next to her. The two of them shrugged simultaneously.

…

…

"I see, so we're from different spots on the timelines…" Neil muttered. "But all the same, it's nice to see you again, Mobius one."

SkyEye had retired after Operation Katina and had not seen Mobius One again for three years.

"Same here; I miss having my AWACS, y'know?" Ribbon laughed.

"I think we all miss having an AWACS, Ribbon." Talisman grinned.

Neil then turned and offered his hand to Cipher. "It's an honor to meet the famed Demon Lord of the Round Table; you were an inspiration to a lot of our ISAF pilots."

Cipher shook the offered hand. "Ha! I'm more famous than I know."

"Guess you don't know about us, huh?" Blaze accused with a smile.

"I'm afraid I do not, but I have my guesses." Neil admitted. Had his untimely transportation to the current timeline been a month late he would've seen the opening of hostilities between Osea and Yuktobania.

"Ah well, that's good enough; so what's the current situation?"

Everyone became serious, as it was business time.

…

"The rebellion in Africa has been going on for some time now, and hostilities between them and ZAFT are at an all-time high. However, the rebel forces lack the military capabilities to strike at the ZAFT flagship directly." An operator said. Mobius One could've sworn that it was the same man who briefed him on his missions back in Strangereal.

Blaze raised an eyebrow. "Wow, dreaming a little big there, aren't they?"

Neil shrugged.

The operator continued after a moment. "The ZAFT forces are projecting their influence with the help of this land ship, operational name 'Lesseps'." A picture of a large yellow behemoth of a ship appeared on the screen. "As long as this ship is active, ZAFT is able to move unimpeded through the desert and deploy their forces at will."

"More importantly, that's the flagship of the tiger of the desert." A girl's voice said behind them. The operator bowed and stepped away from the screen.

"Ok, so explain to us why crippling one ship will miraculously force ZAFT to lose control over this place." Cipher said with doubt in his voice.

The girl shot him a dirty look. "ZAFT is choking the float of supplies in this region, and all to maintain that giant ship of theirs; we kill it, and the local people will get rise up to support us."

Cipher refrained from rolling his eyes with some difficulty. "Whatever you say, darlin'."

The girl bristled. "In any case." She said through clenched teeth. "We need your help against that ship."

Talisman looked around on the base. "Um, what other assets do you have?" His eyes roamed over the jeeps parked underneath canopies and bazookas propped against crates.

"What you see is what we have. Hence, we need your help; we have ammunition for your Spearheads, but we don't have the fighters to fly them." The dark-skinned man behind her said before the girl could respond. "We also have the engineers to provide maintenance should you need it."

"Which we probably will." Blaze sighed. "We've already agreed to this, but man, you guys don't have any idea what you're up against, do you?"

The girl practically shouting at him in response. "The people are suffering! Why should we sit on our asses and wait for things to get better when we can do it ourselves?!"

"Don't confuse courage with stubbornness, brat." Cipher growled. He noted that the dark-skinned man shifted a little aggressively. "You'll just die a quick death if you do."

"Stop calling me girl or brat, I have a name, dammit!"

"Which you've never told us." Ribbon pointed out.

The girl seemed to be taken aback, which was not the response any of the aces had expected.

"Cagalli." The girl finally said after a moment.

Cipher felt his brain spin and then click into place. "So what's the princess of Orb doing in Africa?"

The dark-skinned man barely stopped himself from pointing a pistol at Cipher's forehead.

"What makes you think I'm someone like that?" Cagalli responded, much too slowly and shakily to be believable.

"Cagalli isn't exactly a common name in these parts." Cipher said. "Well, why you're here is none of my business."

Any further discussion was interrupted by a young man running up to the makeshift table.

"ZAFT BaCues coming in!"

…

…

The Aces of Strangereal took to the skies fast, thanks to the Spearhead's VTOL capabilities.

"What are BaCues?" Talisman asked.

"ZAFT's ground dominance units; they look like dogs and are pretty damned fast, supposedly." Cipher replied.

"How did you know about her?" Ribbon asked, referring to Cagalli.

"She's pretty infamous in Orb for being flighty, and being flighty as a princess plasters your face all over the news." Cagalli Yula Athha, the daughter of Orb's current head of government, Uzumi Nara Athha, had gone missing and nearly caused a national panic before Uzumi stepped in with an official story. Naturally, while she was considered missing the orb news sources posted every last picture (some real, some fake) they could get of the sixteen year old girl and Cipher, ever the attentive news watcher, managed to catch some wind of it.

"Chat later, targets now." Ribbon reminded them; the BaCues were kicking up a trail of dust that could be seen by the naked eye.

"Damn, they got this close before the lookouts saw them?" Blaze shook his head. "Razgriz, check in."

"Two." "Three." "Four."

"We're going to do a visual sweep first and identify the targets. Don't get careless out there."

"Roger that."

…

"Captain, I see some aircraft coming from the rebel base." A BaCue pilot said.

"I see them; have the mercenaries get in the air, too."

"Roger."

…

"What do you see, Blaze?" Talisman asked, flying over the BaCues as the guns on the dog-like mobile armor swiveled to track him in the air.

"Two BaCues, three support vehicles." Blaze said, seeing two BaCues and three jeeps.

"Alright, we doing this?" Cipher said, stopping in mid-air with the VTOL engines.

"Yeah; Razgriz, cleared to engage."

…

The ZAFT jeep drivers were too busy swiveling every which way to try and aim at the four Spearheads zipping overhead to realize that one of them had suddenly stopped and pointed its nose towards them.

…

"Jeeps are dead." Talisman said, seeing three flames from the dust.

…

"Captain! Our support units are…"

"Damn it, fire, fire!"

…

Ribbon saw the streaks from the BaCue guns, and banked to evade them.

A part of him felt joy at being able to do something so simple again.

…

"Damn, we're not hitting them?! What's with these damned pilots?!"

…

"Oy, you guys, quit screwing around!" The aces heard Cagalli over the radio.

All of them had gotten so caught up in enjoying the free flight (despite being shot that) that they had momentarily forgotten that they were in a battle.

In response, Cipher dove down sharply, levelling out and stopping right above a BaCue. Then he dropped a bomb while putting power into his VTOL engines. Said BaCue pilot felt a shudder before the unit collapsed onto the ground, the guns on its back a smoking wreck.

…

"Captain!"

…

"Where are you looking?" Mobius One muttered, watching the remaining alive BaCue stop moving to turn around and physically look at the downed unit.

Said BaCue turned to look at the Spearhead diving at it far too late and received a hail of bullets for its troubles.

"Razgriz three, direct hit on enemy cockpit. He's probably not getting up any time soon." From what Mobius One could deduce from desert combat vehicles in the desert need to be fairly robust to withstand the harsh conditions, and as such he didn't delude himself into thinking that the BaCue's pilots were dead.

…

Said ZAFT pilot was in fact alive, but had lost all of his main cameras. He debated fighting for a bit longer before a gruff voice came over the radio.

"Hey you! Get yourself back to base, now."

"R-right." The young man said, and punched a button on his control panel.

The BaCue suddenly sprang to live, swiveled around, and bolted off at top speed.

All BaCues were equipped with an auto-recovery function that drove the suit to a pre-determined point (in this case the Lesseps) in the case that they get lost in the desert.

…

"Huh, that guy ran away fast." Mobius One said while pulling back into the air.

"Probably some safety protocol." Cipher mused.

"Wouldn't surprise me; ZAFT cares a lot more about its pilots than the EFA." Blaze muttered. "Razgriz, picture clear, return to base."

The four crafts turned around and headed back to the rebel base.

…

Blaze's cockpit suddenly blared a missile alarm. Wasting no time, he broke off from his flight path, scanned his radar, and pulled up sharply, using the VTOL engines to quickly change his direction.

The missile exploded well before it hit him.

"What the hell…where did that come from?" Talisman demanded.

All four aces had jinked when they saw Blaze suddenly deviate from the flight path.

"Looks like more ZAFT boys are showing up. Razgriz, turn to engage." Blaze said, before getting an odd feeling in his stomach. Trusting his instincts, he inverted and dove suddenly.

A fighter streaked by, bullets from its nose raking where he was only seconds ago.

"Whoa, whoa, you're joking!" Cipher said, after he had gotten a good look at the enemy fighters.

"Looks like there're more of us than just us." Blaze said, opening up a general communications link.

"This is Wardog one of the Sand Island Defense Force hailing the X-02 Wyverns in current airspace. Please respond."

…

The pilot of one of the Wyverns, a fighter from Strangereal, grinned after a moment.

…

The two ZAFT fighters flew side by side, displaying the insignias on their tail to the four aces of strangereal as the two groups flew by each other.

"Hey Kid. Fancy meeting you here!" A man with a gruff voice said happily.

One of the fighters, sporting an insignia of a heart being cut in a jagged pattern, broke off and flew next to the Spearhead with the hunting dog.

Blaze was too shocked to verbalize his thoughts.

"Surprised? Me too. I hear you've a helluva squad captain now, kid." The man continued, his fighter inverting on top of Blaze's aircraft, so that their canopies faced each other. "Yeah, you're looking real good. So how about a little tussle, for old time's sake?"

Blaze blinked. This was no time to be sentimental; old relations, especially in times of war, meant nothing while they're in the air. "Yes, sir; Razgriz, stay out of this." And yet...

"What…" Talisman was about to interject.

"Like I said, sit back and watch!" Blaze said, breaking out into a huge grin as he and the Terminator flew apart to face each other in the blue sky. Blaze took a deep breath.

"Wardog one, engaging!"

The two fighters sped towards each other.

The other pilot smiled, though it was covered by his mask.

"Heartbreak one, engaging!"

…

Meanwhile, the other Wvyern and Mobius One were flying side by side.

"I didn't think there would be other Strangereal pilots around." The pilot of the Wyvern said. "To whom do I owe the pleasure of flying against?"

Mobius One looked at the Wvyern: it's folding winglets were painted bright yellow, and the tail of the craft had a thirteen emblazoned upon it. "ISAF 118th Squadron, Call sign: Mobius One." _Apparently this guy hasn't fought me yet._

"Erusean air force, 156th wing. Call sign: Yellow thirteen. Pleasure to meet you, Mobius One." The Wyvern banked lazily in the sky. "Now then, shall we get this dance started?"

…

"What's going on?" Talisman watched the two pairs of fighters weave through the sky.

"They're, what do you call it, 'fighting'?" Cipher said with a smirk: neither of the two pairs seemed very willing to use any ammo, preferring to just fly around each other.

"Fighting." Talisman shook his head.

"In any event, we're on call if anything happens." Cipher's Spearhead circled around the perimeter at a leisurely pace.

…

…

Eventually, the Wyverns ran out of gas and had to retreat, prompting the Spearheads to do the same.

"Did you enjoy your dance?" Talisman asked lightly.

"Like dancing with an angel." Blaze said with a light laugh.

"It is a little worrying though." Mobius One said.

"Yeah? Those were people you knew, right?" Cipher asked.

"Yeah."

"So there are others out here besides us; not that surprising if you stop to think about it." Cipher reasoned, stopping over the designated landing site with his VTOL engines.

"Razgriz squadron, SkyEye here, report your situation." Blaze heard over the radio.

"Razgriz One to SkyEye, we engaged two BaCues and some support vehicles. The enemy didn't do a lot of shooting, so they may have been a recon force." Blaze said.

"SkyEye, copy. Good work. Razgriz squadron, you're cleared to land, don't kick up too much dust now."

…

Blaze clambered out of the cockpit to the scene of a few of the rebel men talking with the tall, dark man that guarded Cagalli.

"Probably talking about if they should move the base." Cipher said, upon seeing the same picture. "They really should. If that tiger's as good as his reputation then we need to move."

…

That tiger, Andrew Waltfield, was in the radar room of the Lesseps, watching his men crunch numbers based on the recon data that the lone surviving scout BaCue brought back.

"What did you think of the enemy pilots?" Andrew asked the mercenary pilots after watching the map display narrow down on possible locations.

"They're good." Captain Bartlett said with a laugh. "If there's a fight it's going to be one hell of a show."

Andrew smiled. "It sounds like you're not taking them seriously."

Bartlett chuckled. "Except one of them, they're all still wet behind the ears." He pushed the image of insignia of Galm from his mind. "Once the battle starts we can keep them busy, no problem."

"If only high command gave us DINNs for you two to fly." Andrew sighed. "Talent like yours shouldn't be wasted. Radar! How goes the targeting?"

The map had narrowed down the possible rebel base location to a thin ring with the Lesseps at its center like a giant wheel.

"We have some possible locations based on the rebel's past behavior." The radar operator said.

The targeting map circled certain areas on the map.

"Y'know, you could've just let us fly over there to scout." Bartlett said matter-of-factly.

"I could have, but it wouldn't be polite to the rebels." Andrew said with a smirk. "Gunners, fire on the spot that's least likely to contain the rebel base."

…

The Aces of Strangereal felt a soft tug in the stomachs, before hearing what sounded like an explosion far in the distance.

"I guess that's the Lesseps." Blaze muttered.

Cagalli waved it off. "They do this every time. Ignore them."

…

"Alright, that should do it." Andrew stretched, before pouring himself some coffee. "All pilots get some sleep; we'll begin the real operation at 0200 hours."

…

[Night: 1:45 AM, 0145]

…

Blaze woke up to a sharp tug in his stomach, like the rest of the Aces.

Almost by instinct, he headed towards his Spearhead cockpit, like the rest of the Aces.

"Looks like you got the memo, too." Blaze heard Cipher say.

"Yeah." He replied. "Something big is going to happen."

The rebels had, after deliberation, decided to move the base tomorrow.

That is, a few hours from right now.

…

Suddenly, Blaze felt the urge to take off into the air. Trusting in his instincts, he brought full power to the VTOL engines and lifted a meter off the ground.

He then heard a massive explosion that sounded very, very close to them.

Confusion reigned in the base as the Razgriz took off into the night sky.

…

"No hit, say again, no hit; sorry captain, we missed." An operator on the Lesseps said.

Andrew shrugged. "No problem. Readjust and continue firing."

"Four heat signatures detected from probable rebel base; calibrating new firing solution based on their data."

…

"Blaze, we got company." Cipher said while staring at his infrared display. "It's those two from yesterday."

"Roger that. All aircraft, you are cleared to engage." Blaze said, receiving three affirmatives in reply.

"I don't like flying at night." Talisman muttered.

"Makes all of us." Mobius One sighed.

…

An X-02 Wyvern roared into the battlefield and dropped two bombs into the base air space.

…

Blaze involuntarily squinted as the night sky was illuminated by a massive explosion.

"Shit, they got FAEBs!" Mobius one snarled, accelerating at full power to catch the Wyvern that zoomed away from the explosions of the Fuel Air Explosive Bombs.

A second later, a shrill sound filled the air as the base exploded once more.

…

"Second strike, effective; they're probably not getting up from that." The Lesseps operator said with some satisfaction.

Waltfield nodded. "Mop up."

…

"Whoa, whoa. When did they get so close?!" Talisman jinked sharply to dodge a sudden barrage of fire from several clusters of heat sources from the ground. "They got SAMs, watch your back."

Mobius One, meanwhile, had caught up with the Wvyern after its bombing run and was busy chasing it down with spurts of Vulcan fire.

"Blaze, what should we do?"

Blaze looked around for a moment. "Two, with me, we're hitting the ground. Four, you're supporting three. Keep an eye out for the other fighter."

"Copy."

…

Mobius One and the Bombing Wyvern flew and matched each other move for move…which was not a comforting thought, as said Wyvern flew over the rebel base and would ceaselessly strafe it with machine gun fire at every available opportunity despite the Spearhead hounding on its tail.

"Mobius One, I'm here for support." Talisman said, flying to the two heat blips zipping across the sky.

"Don't need it; hit the damned ground targets." Mobius One said tersely.

…

"Shit, I wish we packed bombs." Cipher said, pouring Vulcan fire onto a heat cluster, and then banking and accelerating away as soon as he heard his threat alarm go off.

"Yeah." Blaze broke off from a strafing run on a BaCue to avoid a half dozen Surface to Air Missiles flying at him. He momentarily considered using the air-to-air missiles on ground targets, but then remembered that this was not Strangereal, and his Spearhead was not packed with the all-purpose seeker missiles that were ubiquitous back in his home.

As Blaze dodged yet another wave of SAMs he felt a sudden urge to jink hard in the opposite direction. So he did.

He then felt a shudder and saw streams of bullets fly past his canopy.

Blaze pulled up hard with the VTOL engines, cutting his speed sharply.

The Wyvern behind him zipped below him and then pulled up high into the sky.

"One, you alright?" Cipher asked, looking at a wisp of smoke from Blaze's craft.

"I took a few hits, but I'm still good." Blaze said, sparing a glance to his display. "Three, heads up; second Wyvern moving in on your position."

"Mobius One, copy."

…

"The enemy pilots are good; we've lost two of our light squads already." The operator on the Lesseps said.

Andrew scowled. "Have them take cover under the BaCues; how long until they reach the rebel base?"

"Two minutes, sir."

He nods. "Fire third round, flares. Upon detonation, all units will advance at top speed to the base."

"Roger."

…

Mobius One heard his warning alarm go off, and jinked to avoid the missile that he knew was behind him.

The momentary opening allowed the Wyvern he was chasing to break off and dive for the base once more.

Mobius One gritted his teeth and dove as well, spinning to avoid the bullets that he imagined would be coming.

"What's with this guy. His senses are exceptional…" Yellow 13 breathed, chasing after the now diving Mobius One.

"Don't worry about it, two; bombs away." Heartbreak One said, dropping his last two bombs while pulling up sharply.

Mobius One flinched when the bombs went off and pulled up hard, feeling his heart skip a beat when the absurdly large dust cloud filled his vision.

He then heard the ping of bullets impacting themselves on his fuselage, before jinking despite the dust cloud into the night sky.

…

The battlefield suddenly became bright as four flares exploded in mid-air.

"What the hell…" Talisman breathed, looking down on the ground and seeing the veritable swarm of vehicles racing toward the rebel base.

"Shit. Looks like he got us." Cipher muttered, strafing the ZAFT forces now that he could see where they were. "Blaze, we should get out of here."

Blaze looked at the ground, at the units swarming into the Rebel base. "Razgriz, we're pulling out."

"What?! We can't just-" Mobius One started to say, ignoring the missile alarms in his cockpit.

"We don't have the equipment, three. All Razgriz aircraft, disengage and return to the Archangel at top speed."

Blaze then heard the threat alarm go off, and felt the hair on his neck stand up. He then saw the Wyverns suddenly dive for the deck. "Shit. Razgriz, dive! Dive!"

The six aircraft flew low as a series of explosions filled the airspace.

…

"Stonehenge rounds, detonation confirmed. Effectiveness unknown."

Andrew sipped on his coffee. "Pretty useful thing that mercenary gave us, total denial of air superiority. Continue firing, cover our ground forces."

…

"Stonehenge?!" Mobius One breathed, before needing to focus on the two Wyverns turning to engage him despite the low flight ceiling.

"Dammit. We're getting Mobius One and then getting the hell out of here. Razgriz, on me!" Blaze roared.

Talisman rolled to avoid some sporadic SAM fire from the ground. "There's no way he came up with this plan on a whim." He muttered to himself, with his microphone on.

"What could've possibly given you that idea?" Cipher said with no small amount of sarcasm as he accelerated with full afterburners towards the dogfight in front of him.

Mobius One, upon hearing his threat alarm, banked and turned as hard as he could, cutting his engines in the process.

The Terminator behind him raced up to meet him with its machine gun firing at full pace.

Mobius One toggled his VTOL engines and spun in midair.

Yellow 13 raced past the spinning Spearhead and heard bullets impact his fuselage.

Mobius One reoriented himself with some difficulty, his g-force sensors practically screaming at his idiotic maneuver.

"Wow, that guy's nuts." Captain Bartlett said, before heading around in a wide circle, with the intent to continue the fight. "Two, you alright there?"

"Heartbreak two, I'm ok." Yellow 13 said, watching the readout on his craft barely change. "Rejoining formation."

…

"Razgriz three, say your status."

Mobius One sighed as he flew away from the rebel base. "I took a few hits, but I'm ok. Damn." He resisted the urge to punch something.

"Yeah."

The four aircraft flew low away from the now captured rebel base, before clearing the combat area and the repeated bombardment from the Lesseps, then climbing, and finally zooming off at top speed.

…

"This is Heartbreak one to the Tiger Den; enemy fighters are gone, you can stop shooting now." Andrew heard over the radio.

"Tiger Den, got it." The operator sighed. "Sir, those pilots are really something; hard to believe they're Naturals."

"Who are you talking about? Ours or theirs?" Andrew asked, stretching.

"Both."

…

…

Kuzzey, taking the night shift as the communications officer so Miriallia can sleep, felt himself roused by an incoming call alert.

"This is Razgriz one to Archangel. Archangel, do you copy?"

"Uh, this is the Archangel. Blaze, you're back really soon." Kuzzey replied.

"Yeah. We screwed it up big time. Do we have clearance to land?"

_Messed it up? How? _Kuzzey couldn't help but wonder. "Uh, yeah. I think. Hanger one is clear."

"Roger that; Razgriz three, you're first."

…

Murdoch woke up to find four Spearheads that weren't supposed to be back for at least a week.

"What gives?" He asked one of the technicians examining Mobius One's aircraft.

"I heard they failed the mission." The technician replied, shaking his head. "The Desert Tiger's as good as his rep."

Murdoch sighed. "Oh well. Just more work for us."

…

"We've just received word from the rebels." Murrue said, after Blaze had given her an emergency briefing. "The cell that you were attached to was summarily rounded up and arrested."

Blaze sighed. "My apologies, we weren't able to do anything for them."

Murrue frowned. "You did what you could. The other rebels are willing to lend us all the support they can muster in exchange for our continued support; it seems like that cell was the largest and most well organized."

Blaze thought back to the level of organization exhibited in the base, and couldn't help but feel mild despair for their future endeavors.

"Regardless, the Archangel's going to dry dock soon. Razgriz is off duty until further notice."

Blaze saluted and left the bridge.

"Can't we just leave the rebels to the ZAFT, captain?" Natarle asked.

"If we can get the ZAFT off our backs any other way, we could." Murrue replied. "But as things are, if we let ZAFT do what they want, we will be pursued and then sunk."

Natarle grumbled something under her breath. "For their first performance in the sky, the Razgriz didn't seem to do that well."

Mu knocked on the wall to announce his arrival. "A surprise night attack with a low flight ceiling; I'm amazed any of them came out of it alive." He said.

…

"Kira!" Kira Yamato heard someone call him through his exhaustion.

Turning off the simulator, he stumbled out of the cockpit of the Strike.

"Jesus, kid; when's the last time you slept?!" Blaze demanded, looking at the disheveled boy.

"A while ago." Kira mumbled.

Blaze sighed. "You're hereby banned from the Strike until you've gotten proper rest."

Kira looked at him.

Blaze stared back. "Training is good, but a pilot that can't perform at his best is just asking to be shot."

Kira nodded, still tired, and trudged off to sleep.

"Damn." Blaze watched Kira leave.

"What's up?" Cipher asked.

The four aces were helping with the maintenance and customization of their crafts.

"The kid's not listening to anyone." Blaze sighed. "He's going to burn himself out at this rate."

"If only he had a girlfriend." Cipher said lightly.

…

Meanwhile, Kira had trudged to his room and crashed into his bed.

His eyes were a solid shade of purple, and his head was amazingly clear.

It took him a while to fall to sleep despite his weariness.

…

"How're you holding up, Flay?" Sai asked her.

Flay was brushing up her hair. "I wish daddy could contact the Federation soldiers from here." She pouted.

"Flay…" Sai started.

Flay pointed her brush at him. "I'm not stupid." The brush went back to her hair. "Earth is jammed really badly right now and there are no satellites, so it can't be helped, but…" She sighs. "I just want to be out of here. We're civilians, Sai. Kira, too." She adds after Sai opened his mouth.

"Besides." Flay puts down her brush, and glances at the door to her room to ensure that it was closed. "My dad thinks there's more to this war than just two sides hating each other."

…

While all that conversing was going on, the Archangel was being towed by an unmarked and suspiciously powerful tugboat along the coast of eastern Africa.

Soon enough, the Archangel was towed into a dry dock by the end of the day.

…

Murrue let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"It's a good thing we weren't sighted." Natarle sighed. "Should we go, captain?"

"Yeah; let's greet our benefactors."

…

Murrue, now off the ship, saluted the man that met her next to the ship.

"Thank you for your assistance; we were really in a bind." Murrue said.

The man spoke with an accent she wasn't familiar with. "It's not a problem; it's not every day we get to work on such a beautiful ship."

Murrue smiles. "She's in your capable hands, then."

The man proudly thumps himself on the chest. "Not to worry. We are Gründer, we can make anything!"

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Ultimately, I was looking for a crossover on a scale larger than just "oh four guys are now here.".

Let's see how it works out.

Amendment:

It's been pointed out that they would be in the Indian Ocean, not the Pacific. This is what I get for not using an actual map; thank you for pointing that out~

There could be two (in-story) justifications for this:

1. India doesn't exist anymore (and the guys in the EFA doesn't want an ocean named after a country? I dunno. Racism makes people do weird things)

2. Sai just read whatever the computer display said.

Take your pick. :3


	7. Stage 6x - Astray

[During the Archangel's week on the ground]

Rau Le Cruset read through the report he received for what he feels is the fifteenth time.

The ruins of Heliopolis had generated some light patterns that suggested a battle, and Rau, by virtue of both being the closest ship that mobilized and by being in hot water for letting the Archangel go repeatedly, was tasked to find out exactly what had happened in the colony debris field.

He had also received a discreet order from Patrick Zala to start grooming Athrun as an officer.

"What do you make of this, Athrun?" Rau passed the report to Athrun, who scanned it quickly.

"It could just be two junk guilds fighting over the scraps." Athrun said with disgust.

"That's why we're going to find out." Cruset said with a light laugh.

"And the battle plan, sir…?"

"Is as we discussed, Athrun. Don't be nervous; you'll be fine." Rau smiled.

…

…

Athrun, according to the battle plan, is responsible for leading two fresh recruits into the debris for scouting purposes.

Said two recruits were not exactly happy about their first mission being a non-combat mission, but the prospects of being under the son of Patrick Zala closed their mouths.

Rau was to sweep in later with a combat team in case something happens.

…

…

"Athrun, you're cleared for launch."

"Roger. Athrun Zala, Aegis, heading out."

Athrun's Aegis was overhauled with new armor. To the eternal ire (and no small amount of respect) of the ZAFT ship engineering crew the Phase Shift Armor module performed just as well regardless of what kind of armor the Aegis had, provided it didn't exceed some built in limitations within the on-board computer.

Regardless of the reason, the Aegis was now repaired up to its brand new condition…missing a beam saber and wielding a makeshift beam rifle, but brand new nonetheless.

…

Athrun idly dodged a few pieces of debris as he coasted through the ruins of Heliopolis, his mind elsewhere.

Deep down, he was both terrified and thankful of the appearance of the unknown pilots of the EFA. Terrified, because the four aces have demonstrated again and again that they were superior in terms of skill, and thankful, because they gave him a reason to fight, and gave him a target other than his best friend.

A small part of him also reminded him to thank whoever decided that stealing the G-units was a good idea.

Athrun involuntarily shuddered at the idea of the four aces piloting the super powered prototypes.

"Sir, we're coming close to our inspection point." He heard one of the rookies say.

He marveled at their ability to keep pace with him despite the debris field.

"Understood; keep an eye out. The Junkers might still be around."

"Roger. Permission to speak frankly, sir?"

"Go ahead." Athrun stared at his radar.

"Do you think there's really anything left here? This place is trashed."

"It doesn't hurt to be careful." Athrun said. "Carelessness will get you killed."

"Yes sir. But the demons aren't here." The rookie laughed.

…

Athrun then heard a beeping, and felt himself frozen for a fraction of a second.

"Scatter!" He ordered.

The three units split and flew in different directions.

Athrun turned around when he had flown far enough and saw an explosion mark where he was.

"Captain, we're currently in combat, requesting support." Athrun has long since abandoned the notion of fighting alone with his pride.

"Understood, we'll be there momentarily."

…

Athrun looked around and saw…nothing. The debris obscured his vision at every turn, forcing him to engage his engines and move around to find this potential attacker.

He then heard a warning alarm denoting fire coming from behind him.

Athrun propelled himself upwards and turned around, just in time to see a missile fly toward his face.

Athrun raised his shield in defense and the missile exploded (relatively) harmlessly upon the shield. He then took this opportunity to rocket away from the oddly thick dust cloud to properly see his enemy.

It was a GINN. A high mobility type with its oversized back-mounted engines, painted white.

In fact, he would've thought it was Yzak's unit if not for the fact that the right arm of the unit was painted red.

"Unknown GINN, state your intentions or you will be destroyed." Athrun declared on an open frequency almost instinctively.

He heard a laugh in reply, from a voice that sounded familiar but he couldn't place where. "That's not something you should say when combat has started, buddy."

Athrun gritted his teeth, and leveled his rifle at the unknown GINN.

The Unknown GINN responded by…vanishing from sight.

"Damn!" Athrun realized too late that the debris created far too many blind spots, and he responded by boosting and climbing upwards…

…before he stopped to avoid running into a stream of bullets.

Athrun twisted his unit's arm around to the direction of the bullet stream and fired back blindly in reply.

The red and white GINN jinked away from the Aegis's counter fire.

"Captain!" Athrun heard his rookies yell.

"Ignore him! There's something here that he wants, find it!" Athrun roared while keeping his eyes locked on the GINN.

"Good call, captain; you've got some good instincts." He heard the other pilot say with a laugh. "But you're a little late to the party there."

"We'll see about that!" Athrun fired at the GINN while charging forward at full speed.

The other GINN dodged the beam rifle fire, and waited until the Aegis was close enough to swing with its beam saber. Then, with a swift maneuver of his engines, the GINN took aim at the back of the Aegis with its rocket launcher, and pulled the trigger.

Athrun fired his engines for a brief second and barely evaded the rocket that was supposed to damage those engines. The rocket flew into a nearly piece of debris and exploded harmlessly instead.

Athrun twisted around with one of the Aegis's leg out in a roundhouse kick.

The GINN blocked it with his sword, and threw a punch in return.

Athrun blocked it with his shield.

_This might take a while. _He thought grimly.

...

While the two units were trading blows the two rookies flew into the largely intact piece of a warehouse.

"What do you think is in there?" Rookie one said.

"Hopefully? What we came here for. What do you think about the captain?" Rookie two replied.

The two managed to catch a few of the oddly savage melee between the two units. "Nevermind him being the son of a top brass, the guy's got balls." Rookie one said with a shake of his head.

Rookie two laughed. "You got that right."

Rookie one turned to the hangar. "Let's sweep this. Turning on lights."

The light on the head of the GINN turned on, and the two made a short sweep around the outside of the hangar in a minute.

"Don't see anything. Move on?" Rookie two said, glancing back at the melee every so often.

"Yeah."

…

Athrun, meanwhile, was getting angry.

"Damn, get the hell away from me!" He snarled.

The GINN was sticking to super close range combat. Close enough that every time the Aegis tried to swing in with its beam saber the GINN would stop the attack by forcibly hitting the Aegis's arm.

"I know what you're thinking, buddy." The GINN's pilot said, with an audible grin.

Athrun was briefly grateful that his communications was off. "Yeah, and you're still annoying." Athrun tried to knee the GINN, but the GINN blocked it with its sword. "Get that sword out of my face!"

Athrun was losing his composure.

…

Rau Le Cruset, meanwhile, was taping the fight from a fair distance.

…

Suddenly, Athrun noted that Rookie one's unit was no longer responding.

"Oy, Unit two. Are you ok?" Athrun's momentary distraction cost him a punch to the Aegis's face. Athrun then fired his head mounted Vulcans to try and get some distance.

The GINN blocked with his sword again, and Athrun took this instant to rocket forward into the other GINN for a full body tackle.

He heard the other pilot grunt with some satisfaction, before rocketing away at full speed.

"Unit two, respond."

…

Unit two, meanwhile, was dead like the debris around him.

…

"C-captain! There's a new unit-" Athrun heard before the line went dead.

"Unit three! Dammit!" Athrun turned to see… the other GINN keeping his distance.

…

…

"Gai, you ok over there?" The pilot of the red and white suit asked.

"Startup sequence normal. Status is all green." Murakumo Gai said, marveling at this new unit he managed to find.

"Ok, I think I'm done here too; can we go home now?"

Gai looked at the empty dock next to it. "Yeah; we'll need to move on."

"Roger that."

…

Athrun levelled his gun at the other GINN, cursing himself for not taking a shot sooner.

The other GINN swerved and took cover behind floating debris.

Soon enough Athrun saw two engine lights escape from the combat area.

"Athrun, you did well." Rau Le Cruset said lightly.

"Thank you, sir." Athrun growled.

"We've recovered one of the rookies for some quite useful data. Losses are unavoidable, but a reality of war, Athrun." Rau said gently.

Athrun took a deep breath; the melee battle had gotten to him. "Right, I understand; Athrun Zala, returning to ship."

…

…

For the next few days the ship's intelligence crew poured over the data, piecing together anything that seemed relevant about this new, unknown unit.

They also spent some attention on the red-and-white unit, but the unit data was already within most common databases (including the ZAFT mercenary registry), so they ignored it after the first five minutes.

Rau Le Cruset had briefed Athrun on the unit that fought with him when the data came out.

"It belongs to a mercenary that is affiliated with the Serpent Guild." Rau had said.

"Serpent Guild? How did they get access to a high mobility GINN?" Athrun wondered.

"Not sure. We've never seen a unit with that particular paint job before either. Either way, they were employed by the Clyne faction when Siegel's daughter was missing."

Athrun remembered the man playing cards on the ship. "Oh, so that's who he was."

Rau nodded. "Have you met the pilot before?"

Athrun shifted a little. "Yes, he was aboard the ship during the...parley."

Rau looked thoughtful. "And I take it you did not meet his unit during the exchange?"

Athrun shook his head. "No sir. It's the first time I've seen it."

Rau smiled. "I understand. You're dismissed."

Athrun salutes and turns to leave, but Rau stopped him for one last comment.

"By the way, I recorded your fight. You've gotten better, Athrun."

Athrun froze.

Rau laughed.

…

Patrick Zala felt an odd mixture of happiness and despair at watching his son pilot a machine and go into old-fashioned fisticuffs with another unit in a zero gravity no holds barred brawl.

Athrun Zala felt an odd mixture of fear and exasperation at the fact that he was now considered something of a local hero and very well respected among the ZAFT rank and file as a "total badass."

.

.

.

{ === + === }

Side story, featuring the Serpent Guild showing up for realsies this time. (Kinda, sorta...)

I'm probably going to do more like this, and they're probably going to be about as short as this.

I can't pad very well. :(


	8. Stage 7 - The Tiger

[At the Gründer industry dry dock]

[Four days after the Aces returned]

…

Murdoch wasn't in a good mood.

Natarle wasn't in a good mood.

Murrue was in a great mood.

And all for the same reasons: The Archangel was (nearly) fully repaired.

…

"I don't understand how those guys can work so quickly." Murdoch said to anyone who would listen.

Given that it was his fifth time posing that question nobody was really listening.

"I don't understand it. This is a prototype ship that doesn't even exist in official records!" Murdoch continued after realizing that nobody was listening. "How can they manufacture things they don't even know so fast?!"

The other mechanics could care less; they got a blessed break after the previous week of trying to perform miracles, and none of them wanted to spend it doing Q and A.

…

"Gründer, huh…Who've thought the South Belka munition plant would've made it here too." Cipher said, after Blaze filled him in on the details.

Gründer (formerly the South Belka munition plant) was a pivotal player in the Circum-Pacific war, which Blaze participated in. While he did not know it (and Talisman felt no need to worry Blaze) Gründer was, in effect, one of the main reasons why the Circum-Pacific war began in the first place. Regardless of their political alignment, the company was a notable producer of arms and equipment in Strangereal, and was often at the forefront of aviation and production technology, facts widely known by a majority of Strangereal.

"I know, right?" Blaze laughed. "It's good luck for us for a change."

Blaze was referring to the new and improved Spearheads that were now sitting in the Archangel's hangars.

Due to the lack of pilots to fly them, an extra set of Spearheads were converted for the Aces to use, so that if there ever will be an extended operation they could switch fighters immediately for the roles as they appear.

As such, the two sets of Spearheads were given different designations to denote their differences in specifications, with the F-7D-C name thrown out since the Gründer's mechanics thought it sounded stupid (further adding to Murdoch's ire).

The new crafts were given the unofficial name of F-8 Super Spearhead, split into two outfits, type A and type B.

F-8 A "Super Spearhead" had every available upgrade possible within the four days to maximize their mobility in the air and their staying power in an air supremacy battle against, as a Gründer employee proudly exclaimed, "any idiot dumb enough to fly against you!"

They also had engines with reinforcements and extra heat sinks (along with emergency coolant) once Murdoch mentioned how often the Aces burn out their engines.

The F-8 B (Also Super Spearhead) was a multirole fighter outfitted for ground assault roles, packing lots of bombs and short range Vulcan guns, as well as one conformal hard point that allows it to carry a Corinthos Anti-Ship Missile, the same kind used by the Archangel. To quote the Gründer crew, "KABOOM! HEH heh heh…"

The Gründer crew also, and somewhat worryingly, restored the Duel to operational condition without anyone asking or having access to the design documents that would make such an operation possible.

For that reason, Natarle was worried.

"Captain, if they could reverse engineer a cockpit for the Duel from _nothing"_ Natarle neglected to mention the fact that the cockpit block was merely mothballed underneath some extra-thick tarp and not actually destroyed "There's no telling what they're capable of; these people are dangerous, captain."

Murrue for one was just happy that her ship no longer looked weather-beaten and derelict. "If they're an issue I'm sure the high command would have addressed it by now."

Natarle grimaced. She had done some independent research on the federation database and found out that Gründer was a contractor for both branches of the EFA, and as such they were, in effect, untouchable.

"But still-!"

Murrue waggled a finger, still in a good mood. "Not another word, Natarle. Let's just enjoy the day off."

Natarle sighed. The two of them had attended the same officer school and she had heard of Murrue's penchant for unorthodoxy, but to imagine it surfacing now of all times!

Murrue looked back at the ship. "I'm sure it's going to happen any time now; we're going to be busy soon, Natarle."

"Captain?"

Murrue turned to face her Executive Officer. "The Rescue operation."

…

…

[Aboard the Lesseps]

…

…

Andrew Waltfield, the Desert Tiger, was having an off day. Even his best coffee brew didn't seem to help matters.

He read and reread the order in his hands, hoping to find some loophole he could exploit, before finally giving up and tossing the memo into a shredder.

"I don't believe this." He muttered.

"Sir?" Martin DaCosta, his second in command, asked.

"Do you believe it? I don't believe it." Waltfield continued to pace around the bridge, as if he didn't hear.

"Is there something wrong, sir?" Martin asked again.

Waltfield stopped his pacing. "High command wants the rebels to be summarily executed."

Martin blinked. "But, they're rebels and Naturals, so isn't it, well, natural?"

He then instinctively backed off a few paces when Waltfield glared at him.

The Desert Tiger leaned against the captain's seat. "Never say that line again, DaCosta; we are ZAFT, we fight for our freedom. We do not take it from others without a good reason."

"But the Bloody Valentine-"

"Is a tragedy and the EFA will pay for it." Waltfield waved the argument away. "What high command is asking me is to commit these rebels to a similar fate. Those idiots."

"Then, maybe we can ask the rebels for help?" Aisha, Waltfield's very pretty blue-haired "lady friend", suggested.

"Ma'am? What do you mean?" Martin was not comfortable around the couple, to say the least.

"Oceania wants the princess of Orb." Aisha said softly. "And I don't think she would want to be separated from her little group, especially if we made her status known to the rest of the group."

Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) was also a holding of ZAFT, and at the moment was pressuring Orb consistently for them to renounce their neutrality and join ZAFT's side.

Andrew smirked at the idea. "If Oceania wants a prisoner, tell them to come fetch her themselves. We're strapped for resources as it is." Oceania was also surrounded by neutral holdings and was relatively safe from any major assault, unlike Africa which was experiencing attacks from the EFA on a near-daily basis.

Aisha giggled. "Aye aye."

…

[Archangel Bridge, three days later]

…

"It's finally happening?"

"It's finally happening."

Blaze and Ribbon filed into the briefing room.

A rebel message arrived a few minutes earlier, detailing the transfer of the captured rebel soldiers (and orb princess) from ZAFT-controlled Africa to Oceania.

"As you might expect, this is a golden opportunity for the rebels to free their comrades." Mu was tasked with the briefing today.

"Our primary enemies will probably be these." A picture of a purple GINN-like unit appeared on the screen. "AMF-101 DINN; it's the air superiority fighter of the ZAFT forces; compared to our Spearheads, they're practically better in every way." The DINN had three pairs of oversized wings on its back, and they deployed out in a fashion rather similar to that of a bug's. Blaze paid special attention to the shotgun weapon one of the video clips demonstrated, as well the pilot's apparent penchant to change altitudes very, very quickly.

"Question." Cipher raised his hand.

"Yeah?"

"Isn't this a trap?" Cipher said. "There's no reason for them to do something this obvious."

"That's what I thought." Mu admitted. "But trap or no this is an opportunity we can't pass up; besides, the rebels are going to free their comrades and we're honor-bound to help."

"Honor." Cipher chuckled. "Right."

"Either way, we're going up. I'm not letting my AWACS sit in a prison cell." Ribbon muttered.

Blaze shot him a glance. "That's that; when's the transfer, Mu?"

"Five hours from now. From our current position we'll reach the intercept point" Mu tapped a map projected behind him with a pointer "here in three hours, assuming we're flying at Strike's cruising speed."

The Strike did not have a very respectable cruising speed.

…

Fortunately, Gründer was able to fix that.

Or rather, they gave Kira an alternative.

The Strike was outfitted with what looked like an oversized ballistic missile taped to its Aile Strike pack.

With it, it would be able to fly into the battlefield without using its internal batteries. Unfortunately it had no internal computer and would need to be purged once Kira enters combat, unless he would rather fly through the battlefield very quickly and have no way to return.

"He would have to walk back." The Gründer employee said with a shrug when the problem of the return trip was brought up.

Once Kira was made known of this little quirk, he merely shrugged. "I just have to not lose the cruise pack, right? Easy enough."

"Man, all those hours in the simulator gave you some balls." Blaze said, surprised.

Kira smiled, and then frowned. "I felt kind of odd afterwards, but a good night's rest made me feel a lot better; I don't quite understand it either."

…

[Lesseps Bridge]

…

"Andrew, are we deploying as well?" Heartbreak One, a certain Captain Bartlett, asked.

"Yeah. We can't leave our ZAFT allies out to dry, either." Waltfield chuckled. "Can you maintain air superiority against the unknowns when they show up?"

"Shouldn't be too hard." Bartlett grinned.

…

[4 hours later]

[Over the Pacific (Previously Indian) Ocean]

…

"Blaze to Strike."

"Strike here, I can hear you."

"How's the cruise pack?" Blaze grinned.

Kira shuddered. "Terrifying." _and loud. _He didn't add.

Kira had also found out to his immense displeasure that the "Cruise Pack" had preciously little maneuverability, and noted with disappointment that he will have to ditch the oversized engine once he entered the battle area after all.

Also, the Gründer mechanic had overestimated the Strike's aerodynamic capabilities; the refurbished engine wasn't that much faster than the Aile Strike's engines when weight was accounted for.

"I'm so glad I'm not flying that thing." Mu said, watching the Strike through his Skygrasper cockpit.

"Makes the two of us." Tolle sighed, in his own Spearhead.

"Both of you are spineless." Kira laughed, trying to ignore the panic in his gut after hearing a particularly loud noise from somewhere in the Strike.

…

[Engagement zone]

…

"I got contacts." Cipher looked down at the splotch of dots on the radar. "This was a trap alright."

Blaze flipped a switch, arming his longest range missiles. "Like we didn't see this one coming; Razgriz, check in."

"Two." Cipher armed his missiles as well.

"Three." Mobius One cracked his neck.

"Four." Talisman rechecked his radar.

"We're going to wrestle the skies from the ZAFT." Blaze said, waiting for his missiles to get into range. "Is everyone ready?"

"You got it, chief." Cipher said lightly.

"What should we do?" Tolle asked.

"Tolle flight will enter the engagement after we have entered combat." Blaze heard the tone for the missile lock, and prayed that the Gründer missiles provided would be more effective than the local variant.

"We'll be with you, Tolle." Kira said.

"Right." Tolle gulped; it was going to be an actual battle for him and the three rookies in his flight.

"Razgriz, engage!" Blaze commanded.

"Fox three, fox three!" The four aces released their long range missiles.

…

"Enemy units are coming, looks like the captain's gut was spot on." One of the DINN pilots said as his radar beeped a warning.

"Yeah. All DINN units, scatter and engage! Destroy these rebels!" The DINN captain said.

"These things are going a little too fast." One of the DINN pilots said. "Do you see anything?"

"No, what the hell? Are they cloaked or something?" Another pilot complained.

The Six DINNs tasked to guard the prison ship were suddenly engulfed by explosions.

…

"Did that actually work?" Talisman was surprised.

"Given their armor, no. Close in and engage." Blaze ordered.

…

"Shit, what the hell was that?!" The DINN captain spat as his unit helpfully warned him that one of the arms on the DINN was missing.

"The missiles have duped signatures; first time I've seen a Spearhead use one." One of his squad members mused, before a beep on the radar made him look down. "Would explain why we thought they were fighters and not missiles; heads up, more rolling in."

"All units scatter and evade!"

…

"Ooh, bad move." Blaze grinned, and sighted the DINN that looked like the captain unit. "Razgriz, split up and take them down; watch your backs."

…

"They're the real deal this time." The ZAFT captain said. "All units intercept."

Six shotguns came up in response.

...

The four Aces of Strangereal jinked hard out of the way of a burst of shotgun fire.

"Jeez." Cipher corrected his plane and pointed his nose at the closest DINN and accelerated.

The DINN pointed his shotgun at Cipher in response, and fired.

Cipher jinked out of the way again.

The DINN followed Cipher with his gun.

The DINN then was propelled forward by a missile exploding into its wings.

The DINN turned around to find this new target.

Cipher turned around sharply to face the DINN's back and opened fire with all of his Vulcans, tearing the DINN's wings and causing it to drop to the water while trailing smoke.

"Good shot." Cipher said with a grin.

"As always." Blaze said lightly.

…

Mobius One heard his threat alarm scream at him as the DINN behind him launched a salvo of missiles.

He floored his accelerator and nosed upward to an almost vertical climb.

The DINN pilot smirked and fired a second salvo of missiles, just in case.

"That ammo bank is a little insane." Mobius One murmured, before cutting his speed as hard as he could and then turning around a full 180 degrees with his VTOL engines.

Mobius One then floored his accelerator along with the VTOL engines.

The DINN watched with some satisfaction as the missiles exploded…before raising his machine gun as the Spearhead he was supposed to have destroyed flew down at him, spewing fire from its oddly numerous front gun ports.

The DINN pilot fortunately had an intact sense of self preservation and raised his shotgun arm (the DINN's right) to protect his cockpit block, moments before his main engine cut out from damage.

Mobius One dove by the DINN and levelled out near the water surface. "Ribbon to all units: DINNs have weak front armor. Repeat, strike them in the head."

Talisman was flying over a DINN, matching its speed, when he heard this announcement.

He shrugged and then dove at the DINN with his guns blaring.

The DINN pilot heard his threat alarm go off, and dropped like a stone in response.

Talisman sighed and shook his head as the DINN delayed the perforation of its head by a mere few seconds before he pulled out of the dive and looked around for another target.

…

"Is it just me, or are these guys really bad at their jobs?" Blaze wondered as he rolled to dodge a shotgun blast aimed in his general direction.

"I don't think it's just you." Mobius One said as he charged at a DINN while banking side to side. "These guys are…" Mobius One fired a burst from his Vulcans, destroying the missiles the DINN had fired almost immediately. "…very, very by the book."

"Guess they don't get out much." Talisman braked and rolled behind the DINN that was trying to chase him, dodging a volley of machine gun fire in the process. "Fox two." His missile happily went after the DINN's engine and blew it to pieces.

Blaze scanned the field: All the DINNs had suffered some level of damage, but only two were actually out of commission. "These DINNs are pretty sturdy, all things considered. Second wave, you're cleared to engage."

"About time." Mu grumbled. "Mu La Flaga, engaging!"

…

The DINN pilots, confused and a bit cowed by the Spearheads that destroyed their cameras, responded to the second wave of lock warnings with confusion and indecisiveness.

"Run or you'll die." Blaze sighed.

Sure enough, the DINNs that didn't collect themselves in time were hit by the second volley of missiles, and fell from the skies.

"I count two ejects." Cipher stared at his camera as he flew by the DINNs that freshly hit the water. "Make that three." He said as he flew inverted over a DINN with its cockpit block open.

"Copy that. Rebel units, begin your approach." Blaze said, finally getting reception with the rebellion boats.

"Got it; thanks for your help, aces." A grateful voice on the line said.

"Alright, all units." Blaze turned and saw Kira shoot out the wings on the last DINN with pinpoint precision from a terrifyingly far distance. "Hit the enemy escort ships; neutralize their combat power."

"Blaze, enemy choppers taking off." Talisman said, watching the blocky ZAFT helicopters take off from the enemy's escort ships.

"They must be pretty desperate; Razgriz, take them out; Tolle flight, hit the ships."

…

"Captain! The Spearheads are…"

"Swat them from the sky!" The captain of the ZAFT escort flagship said, shouting over his operator. "We can't lose to some goddamned Spearheads! What will the rest of the forces think?!"

_The demons from space are real. _Most of the operators thought in unison.

…

The ZAFT helicopter pilots were not having a good day.

First they were told that their mission was going to be an easy one; provide backup support in case the enemy was able to somehow throw off the squad of DINNs and attack the ship.

Then they were told to deploy because all the DINNs were wiped out.

And _now _they're watching two Spearheads fly straight into their ranks at a worrying speed.

…

Blaze pulled up after his attack run through the ZAFT helicopters. "Is that all of them?" He asked, looking at his radar.

"I think so." Mobius One said. "Talisman?"

Talisman and Cipher were told to circle around the helicopters and mop up if the first attack didn't get all of the helicopters.

"I don't see anything else in the air besides us." Talisman said.

"How's Tolle flight doing?" Cipher asked, training a camera onto the prison escort ships.

"Considering the circumstances, pretty good." Blaze laughed.

Tolle and the three rookies were able to safely bomb the escort ships with no regard to any potential threats, since the Aces had taken out the enemy air cover, and the ships were too reliant on said air cover to pack anti-aircraft artillery.

In a matter of minutes the prison escort fleet was disabled and the rebels moved to capture the main ship.

…

Mobius One suddenly felt his stomach twist.

_Shit. _"All units dive; don't go above two thousand feet!" He shouted.

The Rookies wasn't quite sure what he was talking about, but dove along with the Aces all the same and only levelled out their planes once the Aces had done so as well.

The skies above them lit up with explosions, and it was a moment before radio contact among the fighters could be re-established.

"They have Stonehenge alright." Mobius One snarled.

"All units, keep your heads down. Rebs, get a move on, we don't have a lot of time left." Blaze warned, using his VTOL engines to float near the prison ship.

"We're working on it." The Rebel in charge of the radio had fear in his voice. "Just give us a little more time."

Blaze circled around the ship and found the Rebels fighting hard to obtain control of the bridge.

Blaze then flew right over the bridge and oriented his Spearhead's nose to the window.

The ZAFT troops took one look at the Spearhead nearly touching the bridge glass with its multitude of infantry-decimating Vulcan guns and surrendered almost immediately.

"There's your time, now get to it." Blaze said gruffly. Stonehenge was getting on his nerves.

…

"Ok, we have control. All air units follow us and let's get out of here." The rebel said. "Deploying jammers."

A few men had placed themselves all around the ship, and deployed their jamming mechanisms on cue.

Between the roar of a second wave of Stonehenge fire and the jammers, the fighters and the prison ship (and the Strike) were able to slip away easily in broad daylight.

…

"Heartbreak one to Tiger's Den, cease fire, the enemy has left the combat area."

"Understood; are you sure this was a good idea, Captain Bartlett?" Martin DaCosta asked.

"They stole a prison ship. You'll get plenty of chances to hit the enemy base this way." Bartlett replied with a gruff laugh. _Tell me this wasn't your idea of a good strategy, kid. _He thought inwardly.

By virtue of being a lightly armed but heavily armored ship built to contain all sorts of people unsavory to the owner of said ship, all prison ships were equipped with an extremely robust GPS system.

The Rebel Jamming system was able to jam this system for as long as the Jammers are running.

Said Jammers were deployed for the purposes of "getting away", not "hiding the ship".

…

…

…

An hour later, the Prison ship pulled into a sheltered dock, with their EFA allies landing nearby in a similarly sheltered VTOL base.

"How'd you guys build something like this?" Blaze wondered, looking at the oddly well-built surroundings of the underground landing pads.

"This place was an EFA supply depot before ZAFT took over." One of the rebels replied. "The EFA abandoned it, and we found it."

Blaze had a feeling it wasn't exactly abandoned when the rebels took over.

"You think ZAFT had this place?" Cipher muttered.

"Horrible place for a hideout if they did." Blaze muttered back.

"ZAFT never found this one, don't worry." The rebel in front of them laughed. "You can rest easy, aces."

…

…

"Thanks for busting us out, Ribbon." Neil said with a small laugh.

"I wasn't about to let my AWACS rot in jail." Ribbon grinned. "Did ZAFT do anything?"

"The Desert Tiger is pretty civil. We were expecting a trial before the other guys showed up." Neil replied with a shrug.

"Other guys?" Blaze frowned.

"Oceania." Cagalli's tall, dark guardian replied. "ZAFT's secure foothold on the surface."

Cipher clicked his tongue. "I see. So those were the guys we flew against?" The man nodded. "No wonder."

"They haven't seen much action after they secured the area, I take it?" Talisman asked.

The man shrugged. "I heard Oceania is making some kind of move into Eurasia, but that's all I know."

"Interesting. I'm Blaze, nice to meet you." Blaze said suddenly, extending out a friendly hand. "I realized that I still have no idea who you are."

The man shook the offered hand. "Ledonir Kisaka." He said with a small smile.

"You form around here?" Cipher asked lightly.

Kisaka looked at Cipher, both of them keenly aware of Cipher's sharp intuition (and attention to the news). "Yes, I was born in Tassil."

_Not far from the Desert Dawn's base of operations, if I remember right. _Cipher thought. He then wondered idly if the people they've been dealing with so far are the Desert Dawn. "This rebellion has special meaning for you then, I take it?"

Kisaka nods, but only after a moment's hesitation.

_So he's certainly not EFA-friendly. Wonder why that is?_ Cipher thought.

…

…

…

The Tiger of the Desert was in a decent mood.

On one hand, they had pinpointed the position of the rebellion's base, and its summary destruction would ensure that ZAFT would secure its control over the region.

On the other hand, simply destroying a rebel cell wouldn't pacify the region, no matter how influential the cell is. Rebellion would just spring up again as long as the people feel oppressed.

_It all comes back to manpower. _Waltfield sighed.

"Something wrong, sir?" Martin DaCosta asked.

"Just a little deep in thought." Waltfield chuckled, taking a sip from his coffee mug. _Well, let's see how this goes._

…

[Next day, 10:00 AM, 1000 hours]

…

"Report!"

The rebel leaders (plus Blaze and Mu) looked up at the man gasping for air at the door to the room they deemed the headquarters.

"The Tiger of the Desert just sent us a message! They know about this place and they're attacking in two hours!"

Blaze and Mu traded a glance while the rebel leader stared at the messenger, thunderstruck.

The leader then graduated from dumb silence to sputtering while Blaze and Mu rushed out of the meeting room.

Blaze and Mu made it into the lounge before the rebel leader nearly screamed for all units to prepare for the inevitable ZAFT attack.

"How'd they find out?" Cipher asked, not sounding very surprised.

"Who knows? Either way we're looking at an attack in two hours. Any suggestions?" Mu said.

"Load up on missiles, wait until they show up, and then punch their face in." Cipher said with a wide yawn. "Nothing to it."

…

…

The two hours were spent getting ready for the inevitable fight, and passed all too quickly.

"Kira, are you going to be ok?" Blaze asked.

The young man was staring blankly at nothing from the cockpit of the Strike.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kira sighed. "It's just…what will happen if we win?"

Blaze scratched his head. "If we win? ZAFT will take the rebels seriously, and the EFA might consider an operation to retake Africa."

Kira blinked. "So the ZAFT hold on the area will be stronger in the long term?"

Blaze shrugged. "Probably."

Cipher clicked his radio, signaling his entrance into the conversation. "The EFA's been losing ground since the start of the war; it's hard to believe they'll have the manpower to take back anything."

"So this battle is ultimately meaningless." Kira sighed.

Cipher laughed at that. "Thought you figured that out ages ago."

"But if we know this is meaningless, then why are we fighting?" Kira sounded offended.

Talisman chipped in. "This battle is only meaningless for us because we have no investment in it. Look around the base; for them, this battle is far from meaningless."

"It would be better if we could talk it out." Kira said after a moment.

"It would, but talking is only effective if they want to listen." Talisman agreed.

"Love the chatter, but we're about to go into a battle right now." Mobius One interrupted. "Kid, don't fly with your head in the clouds; it'll get you killed."

Cipher laughed. "What he said. For now, focus on the enemy in front of you."

"But how…nevermind." Kira sighed again. Even though he had decided to fight, he was ultimately a civilian at heart.

…

…

Aboard the Lesseps, DaCosta sat in the captain's chair with no small amount of discomfort.

"Oy, DaCosta. Don't mess this up for us." Waltfield said cheerily from within his unit's cockpit.

"Sir, I still think we should ask for reinforcements before we attack." Martin said halfheartedly.

Waltfield waved it off with as much cheer. "You know they're not going to do that." They being the ZAFT high command. "Just do what you usually do, and it'll be fine."

"Yes, sir." DaCosta sighed.

"Worried about your boss?" Yellow 13 asked him.

DaCosta flinched; he still wasn't used to the mercenary pilots showing up seemingly at random, nor was he used to being addressed so casually by a Natural.

"Isn't it obvious?" He responded after a pause.

Yellow 13 had a barest hint of a laugh. "I suppose it would be; focus on your job, and he'll survive."

"Like I needed you to tell me that." DaCosta muttered.

…

"Razgriz is in the air." Blaze said after counting off his flight.

"Tolle flight, we're ready." Tolle said shakily, with his three rookies.

"Mu La Flaga, I'm up." Mu cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

"Kira Yamato, Strike, I'm ready." Kira's voice held the hint of a forced determination.

"Alright." Blaze took a deep breath. "All units, we will now commence the operation. Our target is the enemy flagship, Lesseps. Per our briefing, Razgriz will fly cover and Tolle flight will attack the ship."

"Fly hard, shoot straight." Tolle muttered repeatedly.

Blaze frowned a little. "Don't get too excited, Tolle, or you'll make mistakes. The Strike and Skygrasper are free to engage any target they see fit. Don't get killed out there."

"You're the boss." Mu said lightly.

"Understood." Kira took a deep, calming breath.

"The enemy may have Stonehenge rounds, so keep your heads down." Blaze finished. "Mobius One, how's everything looking?"

In the two hours of preparation, Mobius One had the bright idea of strapping discarded Radome units the rebels found to every Spearhead, with his craft acting as a "master" controller between him and the ground.

"Data feed seems to be ok." Mobius One replied. "How does it look on the ground?"

"Sky Eye here, it looks usable at least." Neil said, fiddling with his display. "It's no AWACS, that's for sure."

"An extra pair of eyes can't hurt." Blaze laughed.

…

…

…

The ZAFT advanced ground forces consisting of four BaCues heard a roar overhead as four Spearheads streaked by them.

"This is the scout unit. The enemy has launched a preemptive attack." The captain of the lead BaCue said to his microphone.

"As expected; don't get killed out there." Waltfield said.

The BaCues opened fire on the Spearheads as they banked and turned.

...

"Sir, all recon unit signals have been lost." An operator on the Lesseps said.

Martin blinked; that was way too fast.

…

"Nice shot, Kira." Tolle surveyed the now smoking BaCue corpses with surprise.

When the scout forces had turned around to fire at the Razgriz, the Strike had charged forward with a volley of beam rifle fire.

Two BaCues fell to the barrage, and the other two died from thrown beam rifles landing in their body.

"Best way to end the fight is to stop them from fighting." Kira muttered to himself.

...

"I'm a little worried about the kid." Cipher said to Blaze on a private line. "He's getting really good, but I don't think his mentality is keeping up."

"Sooner or later he's gonna snap and kill a lot of people, I take it?" Blaze said lightly.

"Yeah."

"We'll rope him in if that happens." Blaze said confidently.

"I hope we're up to it if that happens." Cipher muttered.

...

"There it is." Mobius One breathed, looking at the large signature on his radar.

Talisman squinted and tried to find it with his eyes. "It's either still too far or it blends with the sand really damn well."

Blaze was about to agree, before he felt a tug to his stomach. He checked his altitude…

…still below Stonehenge's limit.

"All units break off! Evade!" He said as he turned sharply.

A veritable wave of missiles, bullets, and anti-air fire filled the skies.

"Flight ceiling restriction removed! Get moving!" Blaze roared, climbing to avoid the blanket of death behind him.

He then heard his threat alarm blare and dove sharply, avoiding a missile coming from his left.

Blaze spared a glance: it was the X-02 Wyvern with the Heartbreak emblem.

…

Mobius One's dodge took him close to the ground, where his VTOL engines kicked up a sand cloud behind him as he regained altitude, jinking all the while just in case someone decided to try and shoot him in the back.

His intuition proved to be correct, as his threat alarm immediately blared a warning from multiple missile locks.

Mobius One turned sharply to throw off the missiles, firing off a flare just in case.

He then inverted and used his VTOLs to push himself toward the ground.

A streak of bullets flew into the flight path he would've taken had he flown upward.

…

Kira stopped flying to hide behind a sand dune.

…

Mu relied on his Skygrasper's powerful thrusters and forcibly pushed himself above the Lesseps, outrunning the streams of fire chasing after him.

…

Tolle's flight was nowhere to be seen.

…

"That's one hell of a greeting." Cipher said, looking down from his vantage point high in the sky.

Cipher and Talisman were left alone after the ZAFT's initial attack, and were able to escape to get a better grasp of the situation.

"The Tiger's smart. Let's finish this as quickly as we can." Talisman said, focusing on the Wyvern chasing after Mobius One.

"Yeah; let's do this."

Cipher and Talisman inverted and dove into the ensuing battle.

.

.

.

{ === + === }

For some reason this chapter felt very wrong to write.

Might just be a quality thing.


	9. Stage 8 - The Den

Cipher and Talisman dove in in search for the X-02 Wyverns ZAFT had fielded among their withering anti-air fire.

"I have to admit…" Talisman said as he wove through streams of bullets. "ZAFT really values their anti-air when it matters."

"I think it's just the Tiger." Cipher pulled up to avoid a shot from a rather gutsy man on the ground with a rocket launcher. "The prison ship didn't seem to care about anti air all that much."

"Yeah, I guess. 3 o'clock, Cipher." Talisman turned sharply.

"I see it." Cipher looked down at the BaCue that had its attention focused elsewhere.

"Cipher, your six." Cipher suddenly heard Neil's voice on the line.

"Got it." Cipher dove down into the BaCue, peppering it with his Vulcans, and then climbed high into a steep climb.

"I miss LAGMs." He said sadly as the missiles behind him were systematically shot down by Talisman.

"Cipher, two heat sigs on your five, one of them's Blaze, the other is probably a Wyvern." He heard.

"Ok. Thanks, Neil." Cipher headed towards the head signature that his systems didn't see.

"Sky Eye." He heard Neil's terse reply.

…

"Dammit, get off my back…!" Blaze snarled.

Blaze had evaded the Lessep's barrage of anti-aircraft and found the Wyvern with the heartbreak emblem on his tail almost instantly.

The two engaged in a short but fierce battle for position, with both planes alternatively swapping positions and taking wild shots at each other with their nose-mounted machine guns.

To make matters worse, at some point (he wasn't sure when) the Wyvern with the yellow wingtips had appeared on his tail. The combined forces of the two Wyverns forced Blaze to take some very harsh evasive maneuvers, practically steering him away from the fight entirely.

Mobius One was close on the tail of the Yellow Wyvern, but the sharp maneuvers its pilot was exhibiting in order to keep up with Blaze was making it difficult for him land anything other than the sporadic Vulcan hit.

"Guys, I need some serious help over here." Blaze said, taking another turn sharp enough to nearly hurt.

"We're on it, just keep on your toes." He heard Talisman say.

…

The pilot of the Yellow Wyvern smiled slightly.

"Sorry, kid, but this is business." The pilot of the Wyvern with the heartbreak emblem said with a small sigh. "I suggest you punch out soon or your body won't be able to take it."

...

Blaze pulled up high to avoid another streak of bullets.

A shot from a beam rifle streaked in front of him.

Blaze pulled harder and the beam fizzled uselessly high into the sky.

"What the hell…Sky Eye, what's going on?!" Blaze demanded.

"Four new contacts approaching from your two o'clock, three GINNs and one unknown. Watch yourselves up there." Sky Eye cursed his lack of proper equipment.

"Wonderful, just wonderful." Blaze rolled and braked, forcing the Wyverns to break off to avoid a collision. "Any other good news?!" He accelerated to follow the Wyvern closest to him.

"Yeah, stay still for a second." Mu said over the radio, his Skygrasper high in the air.

"Like I have the time for that!" Blaze gritted his teeth, focusing keeping the Wyvern with the yellow wingtips in his field of vision.

…

"Looks like those two fighters are giving the demons a hell of a fight." Dearka said with a small laugh. "Should we go help out, Yzak?"

"Of course."Yzak scowled. "Shoot them from the skies!"

"Roger that." Dearka grinned, watching his targeting radar as his unit landed on top of a Sand Dune and braced. "I'll just wait for the right moment, then."

_Now, where's that Strike? _Yzak thought to himself, scanning the sand dunes for a sign of the Gundam.

…

"Yzak! Move!"

Yzak did as he was told, exaggeratedly dodging a beam rifle shot seemingly from nowhere.

"What the hell?" He focused on the sand storm that was being kicked up from the ground, watching for a stream of green…

And then neatly dodged the second shot from a little ways left of where he was staring.

"Found you!" Yzak roared and kicked his engines into full power, launching his GINN to the ground like a comet.

…

_Damn. _Kira thought, and kicked his engines up as well, before doing what can only be called a twirl with his Strike.

…

The sandstorm Yzak was looking at suddenly exploded.

Yzak, obeying his sense of caution this time, decelerated and turned away to avoid being caught inside the massive sand cloud.

A beam shot from inside the cloud clipped his left wing engine, and his GINN spun out of control and collapsed on the ground.

…

"Great shot, Strike." Kira heard Sky Eye's voice over the warnings in his cockpit; the Strike did not like being in the desert very much. Kira then accelerated out of the dust cloud towards his shot.

…

"Yzak!" Dearka looked down at his friend's GINN.

"I'm fine." Yzak spat out. "I bit my tongue though."

Dearka sighed. "Sheesh. Watch yourself down there!"

"Nevermind that. Is he behind me?" Yzak asked, his mind quickly crunching some numbers.

"Yeah, he just came out of the cloud. Do you want me to"

"No, stay focused on the demons; I just need to tie him up." Yzak took a deep breath.

…

The Strike approached the downed GINN and watched it for a few seconds.

_He's probably down; I need to focus on taking out the Lesseps. _Kira thought, and turned to look at the giant land ship.

Instantly, the GINN kicked up a cloud of dust with its engines.

Kira snapped back to look at the GINN and sees nothing but dust.

_Damn! _Kira backpedaled to get out of the dust cloud.

…

The instant the Strike left the dust cloud, the GINN came charging in to his right.

The GINN's sword met the Strike's shield with a resounding clash.

_I should've gone to his left. _Yzak thought idly before using the imbalance in his propulsion to spin his unit wildly.

The GINN's sword, as a result, was repeatedly slammed into the shield until the shield bent.

The Strike moved its arm.

Yzak's GINN used its main engine to jump into the air, and brought down its sword with an awesome force on the Strike's head, forcing it to stagger forwards.

The Strike, in response, accelerated forward at maximum speed and slammed into the GINN with its head, causing the iconic V-shaped headpiece to stab into the GINN's armor and then snap off from the force of the impact.

With the GINN recoiling, Kira drew a beam saber and slashed upwards, destroying the GINN's sword. He then twisted and slashed sideways at the GINN.

The GINN jumped back and avoided the slash, before jumping forward with a kick, sending the Strike sliding backwards.

Kira threw away the shield and drew his other beam saber.

Yzak scowled. "I could use a hand here." He said to the rest of the GINNs.

In response, a GINN dropped a sword to Yzak, who plucked it from its resting position of a few feet into the sand dune.

"Thanks, Shiho." Yzak said with an audible grin, and pointed the sword point at the Strike.

...

The rebel forces with their jeeps were dying in all kinds of ways to the BaCues, mostly via being shot at by explosives.

…

Sky Eye had his hands full trying to coordinate the most ramshackle attack on a ship in his living memory.

"Rebel unit two three five, enemy approaching on your two o'clock, advise immediate counter-maneuver. Rebel unit two five eight, BaCue in front of you: stay alert."

"Even if you don't tell us" The man's voice on the radio was punctuated by the sound of RPGs and machineguns "we know!"

He then saw another blip disappear. "Unit two one nine is non-responsive. All remaining units stay alert for enemy attacks on your left flank."

He then opened a new line. "Sky Eye to Mobius One, can you assist the rebels on the ground?"

"That's a negative." Mobius One said gruffly. "I can't disengage from this position." He spared a glance towards Blaze, who's alternating between chasing a Wyvern and being chased by a Wyvern, occasionally both happening at once.

"I'm worried about Blaze. He's gotta be hitting his limit at this point." Mobius One muttered.

"Can you assist Blaze?" Sky Eye asked next.

"Also negative; the enemy pilots are skilled." Mobius One said. With the way the six pilots were flying, nobody has gotten enough time to lock with a missile.

"Oy! Aces! We're getting our asses shot up here! How 'bout a little help?" Mobius One heard over the general line. _Damn._

The Four Aces were carrying only air to air ammo, and were nowhere near the Lesseps in either altitude or distance.

Then again, most of the rebels weren't near it either; the BaCues completely stopped any semblance of advancement the rebels had.

In fact, the Lesseps was confident enough to stop firing its anti-air guns entirely.

"Shit! This is going to hell in a hand basket!" Another rebel yelled.

…

"Well now you know how we feel." Cipher muttered, twisting to try and get a clear shot on the Wyvern in front of him. "Blaze, take a hit for us?"

"Like hell I will." Blaze laughed, dodging in every possible direction to avoid streams of machine gun fire from the Wyvern behind him. "How's the kid doing?"

"He's alive, at least." Cipher spared a glance in the general direction of where he thought the Strike was.

…

Kira's cockpit blared another warning, this time about this right arm joint.

_This guy's gotten better. _Kira thought, swinging his beam sabers a little wildly to force the GINN away again.

_Damn. I can't get close. _Yzak mused, his confidence granting him a measure of calm.

Kira opened fire with his head Vulcan (the right one was damaged and wasn't working anymore) at Yzak, intent on forcing the white GINN to dodge to its right.

The GINN threw its sword at the Strike instead.

"Whoa!" Kira flinched when the sword flew inches away from the Strike's main camera.

He then saw the GINN charge forward at full power, and spun with his beam saber outstretched.

_Figures. _Yzak used his imbalance from losing a thruster to spin away from the Strike's saber, landing near his thrown sword and retrieving it.

He then felt the hairs on his neck stand up and hopped to his right, avoiding a shot from the Strike's beam rifle.

"Dearka! How's it looking up there?!" Yzak looked down at his panels: less than half energy left.

"I don't see how the hell I'm supposed to hit him." Dearka groaned, looking at his targeting computer go insane trying to predict Blaze's flight path.

Yzak turned and saw the Strike focus on the Blitz.

"I have him." Yzak heard one of his squadmates say.

The GINN in question pulled out its machine gun and bazooka, and fired haphazardly toward the Strike.

Kira jumped and flipped in midair, kicking up the sand before spinning to orient himself towards his new attacker.

"Shiho, you moron!" Yzak growled as he charged at the Strike.

The Strike threw one of its Armor Schneider knifes at Yzak's GINN.

Yzak, once more, used his imbalance in thrust to sidestep the knife without stopping his charge.

_Damn. _Kira was conflicted between continuing to engage the GINN that was shooting at him and turning to handle the tough, damaged white one.

"Kira!" He heard Mu shout.

Mu La Flaga's Skygrasper dashed into the area and fired its AGNI cannon between the Strike and Yzak's GINN, forcing Yzak to stop his charge.

"This is getting out of hand. Intercept that jet!" Yzak ordered.

Dearka, of course, ignored him because he has a job to do.

"Whoa!" Mu pulled up and rolled to dodge the sudden increase in anti-air fire from the GINNs. "Kid, you alright down there?!"

"Not for long." Kira looked down. He had about 10 percent of his energy left. _What do I do?_

…

"Blaze!"

"I'm working on it!" Blaze snarled into his radio, ignoring the low energy warning blaring in his cockpit.

"Shit. Talisman! Get on it!" Cipher yelled.

"Trying!" Talisman turned hard to keep up with the yellow winged Wyvern, but it braked suddenly and suddenly he found himself being chased instead.

"They must be running out of gas, too." Mobius One muttered.

"Doesn't look like it." Cipher gritted his teeth, enduring the g-force of his maneuver as he tried to get behind the Wyvern with the Heartbreak emblem.

"Blaze! Watch your altitude!" Talisman saw Blaze suddenly dive down.

"Like I have a choice." Blaze muttered, going down as low as possible before pulling up, kicking a cloud of dust behind him.

"That won't help you, kid." The pilot of the Heartbreak Wyvern said over the common frequency.

"Yeah, yeah. You still haven't caught me yet, Bartlett." Blaze said.

"That's Captain Bartlett to you, kid." Bartlett grinned. "Keep flying like that and you'll give Nagase a heart attack."

"She'll be just fine." Blaze spun and dodged another streak of bullets. "Keep shooting and she'll have your behind."

"It'll be just fine." Bartlett grinned despite himself. "You need a potty break, kid? Your flying is getting sloppy."

"I could use a nap." Blaze admitted, pulling level for a second.

…

Dearka's targeting computer suddenly registered a lock.

Dearka instinctively pulled the trigger even as his mind began to ask "how?"

…

"Blaze! Break!" Sky Eye saw one of the ZAFT blips suddenly shine.

Blaze's craft inverted and dodged downwards.

A green beam flew over his craft, cooking the VTOL engines.

Blaze levelled out his craft as it billowed out smoke.

…

_Shit._ Dearka thought as he fired a second shot a little lower than normal.

…

"Blaze! Are you ok?" Mobius One flew next to Blaze's craft to assess damage.

Captain Bartlett, in a show of comradery for his fellow Osean pilot, broke off the attack.

"Yeah. Shit." Blaze pulled hard on his stick and felt his craft fail to respond. "I've lost my main engines. I'm heading back before this gets any worse."

"You should just bail out." The Yellow Wyvern said coolly, flying in fast with Talisman hot on his tail, firing away with his machine guns to little effect.

"Oy." Captain Bartlett started to say.

"But nothing; this is a battlefield." Yellow 13 locked onto Blaze's staggering aircraft.

And fired a missile.

"You're an asshole, you know that?" Blaze sighed, and ejected from his aircraft.

Yellow 13's missile impacted the Spearhead, shredding its engines and sending the plane spiraling toward the ground billowing smoke.

…

Talisman felt the hair on his neck stand up, and debated on evading for a brief moment.

In that brief moment, the second beam from the Buster struck his fuselage.

…

"Razgriz four! Talisman!" Sky Eye could do nothing but watch as the Spearhead's signature vanished from his display.

…

"Talisman! Razgriz Four! Respond!" Mobius One yelled, watching Talisman's craft spiral into the ground.

"I'm fine!" Talisman's radio crackled with interference. "Bailing out!"

"This is a battlefield, Mobius One. Don't forget that." Yellow 13 said coldly, flying gracefully through the sky.

"Yeah." Mobius One agreed tonelessly.

Yellow 13 then felt bullets impact his fuselage. _What the… _he inverted to dodge the unknown attack…

…and then saw the Spearhead with the Ribbon emblem fly up at him.

"Mobius One, engage." Upon hearing those three words, Yellow 13 felt a shiver run through his spine.

Yellow 13 then inverted and dove, and the two fighters engaged high in the sky.

…

"Good shot, Dearka!" Yzak laughed in a momentary pause in his fight with the Strike.

"Woohoo! Yeah!" Dearka couldn't help but punch the air in his joy.

…

"Razgriz one down, Razgriz four down. All units, be careful." Kira heard Sky Eye say over the radio.

"What happened?!" He demanded, paying his own battle scant attention.

"Blaze has ejected, Talisman's status is unknown." He heard Sky Eye say, and then heard the impact of bullets on his armor.

His own energy tank then ran out.

"What the…" Yzak momentarily stopped as the Strike's color was replaced with a grey tint.

"His phase shift is down. Finish him off!" Dearka laughed, still running high on his adrenaline.

"Damn straight. All units! Converge and kill it!" Yzak roared.

…

"Mu. Give me the launcher pack."

"Uh…ok. Detaching." Mu La Flaga flew down despite himself and detached the Launcher pack over the Strike.

…

"Destroy it!" Yzak raised his machine gun along with his squad of three other GINNs, pouring fire on the Strike

The Strike jumped and spun while detaching its wings.

Two blurs shot out from its arms, and two of the GINNs fell as a pair of beam sabers embedded themselves into their cockpits.

"What the hell?!" Yzak gasped as the Strike grabbed the AGNI launcher.

…

"Bartfield to all BaCues! The rebel elements have broken! Converge and attack the EFA forces!"

Andrew Bartfield watched the battle from the Lesseps, having done his share of head shaking from the rebel's determination in the face of overwhelming odds and having done next to no damage against the BaCues despite losing what is nearly all of their forces.

"Roger, captain!" The BaCue squad captain grinned. "The demons aren't anything after all…Cruset must be losing his touch."

Six BaCues (some with scratched paintjobs) rolled towards the Strike.

…

The Strike loaded the Launcher pack, refilling its battery.

"To all ZAFT units." Kira said with his voice devoid of emotion. "If you do not wish to die, eject now."

"What the hell is he on?" Dearka thought.

"I got him." Yzak's remaining alive squadmate insisted with its bazooka pointed at the face of the Strike.

"Enough! Shiho, pull back!" Yzak snarled. The Strike was giving him a very, very bad feeling.

"Strike...destroying targets." Kira's pupils seemed to have disappeared, and his purple eyes fixated on the closed target: Yzak's GINN.

"Yzak! Watch yourself!" Dearka warned, also getting that feeling that this Strike was suddenly very, very bad news.

Yzak spun with his imbalanced thrust and delivered an overhead sword slash toward the Strike.

The Strike responded by dodging the blade by turning a quick full circle, and upon turning around to face the GINN again he instantly stabbed the GINN's head with one of its knives.

Yzak jumped back, trying to get his bearing as his main camera crackled with static.

He then heard a loud **clang **as the Strike threw its knife into his GINN's sword arm.

Yzak looked up, and the Strike was suddenly in front of him.

He heard a loud, grating noise, and then the Strike crouched down with its newly recovered dagger in hand. The Strike then struck upwards.

Kira's swing caught the GINN's sword arm at the wrist and he took the sword for himself, discarding the GINN's severed hand.

"Yzak!" Dearka fired at the Strike, causing it to stop for a second as Yzak pulled away.

"Thanks. Shit, what the hell is going on?!" Yzak felt cold sweat run down his back.

"Yzak team, this is Waltfield; pull back to the ship." He heard over the radio.

"Yzak team, roger." Yzak looked at the Strike with a scowl.

…

"I got your long range death right here, buddy." Dearka snarled, firing another shot from his long range beam rifle.

And immediately heard his damage alarm blare.

"When did he…?" Dearka looked at the Strike with its AGNI launcher in its right hand.

"Out of my way." Kira murmured.

"Dearka! We're getting out of here!" Yzak looked at the Buster with its left arm and half of its beam rifle missing.

"I got ya." Dearka took a calming breath; it didn't help him much. "Is that for real?" He wondered as he ran from the battlefield.

"Captain Waltfield, this guy's acting weird. Watch yourselves." Yzak warned.

"Understood, kid." The BaCue captain drawled.

Yzak sighed despite himself.

…

The BaCue squad met the Strike as it walked toward the Lesseps.

"I got him." The BaCue captain said confidently, rolling forward at maximum speed with its mouth-mounted beam blades active.

The Strike didn't bother to maneuver, and instead pointed the AGNI launcher at the BaCue and blasted it into tiny bits.

The rest of the BaCues fired volleys of missiles at the Strike.

The Strike charged forward at maximum power, using its head-mounted Vulcan to remove the missiles in its path with almost surgical precision while counterfiring with his shoulder-mounted gatling gun, shredding two more BaCues in his charge.

"Damn, retreat! Retreat!" one of the BaCue's riders said, turning his unit around and trying to run away.

"Eject." Kira said coldly over the common frequency, before engulfing the three remaining BaCues with a sweeping shot from his AGNI launcher.

…

"All…all BaCues destroyed." An operator on the Lesseps said shakily. _That wasn't even a minute!_

The bridge on the Lesseps was silent save for the beeping of the computers and equipment, as all the personnel watched the Strike stride from the burning wreckage of BaCues from one of the BaCue's cameras before it fizzled out and died.

Because everyone was so focused, the threat alarm was loud enough for the entire ship to hear (it felt like).

"What's going on?" Waltfield demanded.

"New targets, from up high! Three fighters!"

…

Tolle's flight of bombers dove at the Lesseps, having shielded themselves from the Lessep's sensors by hovering low against the sand dunes.

"They're gonna open fire on us soon. As soon as you have a clear firing solution, drop everything you have!" Tolle ordered.

"Got it!" His wingmen acknowledge shakily.

_C'mon, c'mon…_

The sky over the Lesseps began to fill with anti-air fire.

"Damn." Tolle muttered as he rolled to dodge the streams of fire.

"I-I'm hit! Disengaging!" His wingmen shouted in panic, breaking off his attack run the instant his plane was caught by anti-air fire by flying high, straight, and slow. It was shredded by anti-air fire moments later.

"Stay with me, three!" Tolle said, just in case his last wingman got spooked.

Tolle's flying was remarkable enough that the nameless wingman was able to survive by flying close to him, regardless of how much terror was in the poor guy's head.

…

"They're not stopping!" A Lesseps operator shouted in panic.

"Continue fire! Don't panic!" Bartfield barked.

…

_C'mon…c'mon…! _Tolle's eyes darted down to his rangefinder. He regretted suggesting to the technicians that they should give him nothing but radar-guided munitions; the Spearhead's odd computers ensured that while the munitions had no lock they would refuse to fire.

He made a mental note to ask Kira to help rewrite it if he…no, _when _he got out of this fight alive.

_Distance…2000…1500…_

Tolle pulled up slightly and twisted into a sharp dive.

Moments later, his radar beeped a lock.

"Bombs away! Bombs away!" He shouted, releasing his payload onto the Lesseps.

"Fire, fire, fire!" His wingman pulled up along with Tolle, accelerating away from the land ship at maximum possible speed.

"This is Tolle, bombing run on enemy land ship a success!" Tolle said happily, once he was out of the anti-air gun range of the Lesseps.

"Sky Eye, roger." Tolle noted that Sky Eye sounded a little stressed. "Standby for your next orders."

"What, we don't get to reload?"

"Negative. Stay in the air."

"Fine." Tolle huffed.

…

…

Yellow 13 was having the time of his life.

While running away from a grim reaper, Yellow 13 couldn't help but be elated at the prospect of sharing the sky with someone so skilled.

Even as his plane's computer showed multiple hits to the fuselage, and countless other injuries that threatened to drop the plane at any second.

"Oy, you're at your limit, two." He heard Captain Bartlett say over the radio.

"I am aware." Yellow 13 said quite peacefully.

…

"Mobius One, you're almost out of gas." Cipher warned.

Mobius One didn't reply, but continued to spew machine gun ammo into the Yellow 13's Wyvern.

"Oy. Ribbon. They're alive, chill." Cipher sighed.

…

"Damn." Yellow 13 felt his craft shudder. "I guess he's not gonna let me go with just a warning."

"Yellow 13, bail out." Captain Bartlett said. "This isn't going well for us."

"Yeah. Punching out." Yellow 13 ejected from his Wyvern, watching it turn into a ball of flames from Mobius One's continued assault. _This is war, after all._ He thought idly.

"Shit, now what?" Bartlett muttered to himself.

…

"Mobius One, RTB immediately, that's an order." Sky Eye said. "The Lesseps has been crippled, mission objectives have been accomplished."

Mobius One took some deep, heavy breaths. "Understood. Mobius One, returning to base."

"Really? The Lesseps is down? Who got the kill?" Cipher flew into formation behind Mobius One.

"Tolle's flight gets the honors." Sky Eye sighed.

…

"The Lesseps is down?"Yzak stared at the smoking ship.

"It takes a lot more than that to sink that ship." Dearka said with a laugh, despite his unit's injuries. "Waltfield is probably playing dead."

"I sure as hell hope so." Yzak looked around at the smoldering field around the ship. "Otherwise we're gonna fry out here."

"What happened to the Strike?" Dearka asked, scanning his radar.

"Don't know. I hope he burns to death." Yzak mutters.

…

"Tolle flight, I'm sending you coordinates, patrol the area as outlined." Sky Eye said as he sent some numbers to Tolle's flight computer.

"Eh? Why do I have to do this now of all times?" Tolle whined.

"The Strike's signal disappeared in this region. I want you to check it out."

"On it." Tolle's playful whining vanished instantly. "Three, come with me."

"Roger that, boss." Tolle did just dive bomb a warship and disable it by himself, after all.

…

"Neil." Sky Eye turned to look at Cagalli.

"What is it?" Neil said tersely.

Cagalli frowned slightly. "Is the battle over now?" She gestured to what was left of the rebel forces with a tilt of her head.

Neil caught her meaning: the rebel forces were simply too worn down at this point to continue. "I think so. We're still trying to ascertain the situation, but as far as we know all sides are pulling back for the moment."

Cagalli let out the breath she was holding. The base had raised a cheer when it became known that the Lesseps was damaged, satisfying their main objective, but the more pragmatic members of the group made it clear that taking out a single ship won't fulfill their end goal of driving ZAFT out of their territory.

Of course, losing what is essentially all of their combat power didn't help matters.

Just then, Neil's communication system beeped.

"Sky Eye here." He said instinctively.

"Uh…This is the Archangel, is…is the Razgriz team available?" He heard a young girl's voice over the intercom.

"This is ISAF AWACS unit, callsign Sky Eye. Razgriz is currently en route back to base; what do you wish to convey?"

"Uh. Tell them that the Archangel is coming to pick them up; we got some bad news." _What could it be?_

"Roger."

…

"Sky Eye to all friendly elements: allied asset 'Archangel' is en route to the area." Cipher heard over the radio. "They have some new information. Patching their comms unit through."

"Uh…" He heard Miriallia sound utterly confused about what's going on. "The EFA has sent new information: they're going to stage an attack to recapture the northern coasts of Africa in two weeks' time."

"Two we- what the hell are they waiting that long for?!" Cipher demanded.

"We're…we're not entirely sure either." Cipher could hear Miriallia's shrug. "But either way they're expecting all units within the theatre of operations to participate in the battle."

"Not happening." Mobius One said coldly.

"I know, right?" Miriallia laughed. "So our goal is to pick you guys up and get the hell out of here as soon as possible; stay put and stay safe!"

Mobius One heard Natarle say something, probably to the effect of "don't talk like that when you're on duty". He smiled slightly.

"So that's how it is on our end; how's the support effort going?" Miriallia asked.

Tolle chose this moment to report in. "Tolle here! I see the Strike! It's Phase Shift is down and it isn't moving!"

"Sky Eye, roger. Send us your coordinates." Neil then turned to Cagalli. "Do you have any rescue assets available?"

Cagalli shook her head.

"Mu La Flaga here." Mu's Skygrasper flew low, circling around a spot in the desert. "I have Razgriz One's beacon; should I send you the coordinates?"

"Do it." Neil commanded.

"Wait! What happened?!" Murrue demanded, hijacking Miriallia's line.

"We sustained losses during the battle." Sky Eye said tersely. "I suggest you have medical facilities prepped and ready to go the moment you arrive."

There was a moment of silence. "Right. Got it." Murrue said distractedly.

.

.

.

{ === + === }

This continues to feel a little weird.

But we're plowing along~


End file.
